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West Africa’s Wars: A region in flames
Long piece in the Economist, lots of good backround material.
West Africa's civil wars are usually reported as tragedies befalling individual states. This month, the spotlight is on Liberia. A couple of months ago, the conflict in CÃŽte d'Ivoire received more attention. Before that, it was Guinea, and before that, Sierra Leone. In fact, all these wars are intertwined, and it is impossible to understand one without reference to the others.

Go read the whole piece.
Posted by: Steve 2003-07-03
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=16092