Africa Update

Volume 3 1992

MILITARY COUP IN SIERRA LEONE

General Joseph Momoh’s government was overthrown by a military coup on 29 April. Although the coup had tribal undertones, it was also a by product of the vicious civil war in neighbouring Liberia. During the Liberian civil war over 100,000 Liberians fled to Sierra Leone and thousands of Sierra Leone troops invaded Liberia as part of a regional “peace keeping force”. The new military ruler, 27 year old, Captain Valentine Strasser described his predecessors as “an oppressive, corrupt, exploitative and tribalistic bunch of crooks and traitors...” Almost 100 national leaders in Africa have been overthrown in 83 violent coups and 23 assassinations since 1963.

ANGOLA COUNTS THE COST

It will take years to fully appreciate the devastating cost of 18 years of communism, Cuban occupation, and civil war in Angola. Yet the preliminary estimates are shocking enough: Damage to buildings and equipment exceeds US $25 billion; 300,000 people killed; 50,000 crippled or mutilated; 500,000 refugees fled to Zaire, Zambia and Namibia, 800,000 internal refugees displaced, and 60,000 orphans.

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