Thomas Quiwonkpa

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Thomas Quiwonkpa, a Gio from Nimba County, was a Commanding General of the Armed Forces of Liberia and founder of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia.

In 1983, Quiwonkpa was demoted, and was subsequently charged with an attempt to overthrow the Doe Administration. The charges forced Quiwonkpa to flee the country.

On November 12, 1985, one month after elections were held, Quiwonkpa, supported by about 24 heavily armed men, covertly entered Liberia through Sierra Leone, and launched a coup against President Doe. Bad timing, unorthodox methods used by Quiwonkpa and lack of support from the United States resulted in the disastrous failure of the uprising. Quiwonkpa was later captured, killed, mutilated, and allegedly cannibalized by Krahn soldiers loyal to President Doe (Ellis, 2001, p. 146).

In a massive campaign of retribution against the coup plotters and their supporters, General Doe and his army went on a killing spree, especially against innocent civilians who were associated with Quiwonkpa's Gio nation, and the ethnically related Mano people. The slaughter of an estimated 3,000 people created the opportunity for the exploitation of ethnic rivalries that later fuelled the Liberian Civil War (Adebajo, 2002, p. 46).

[edit] References

Adebajo, Adekeye (2002). Building Peace in West Africa: Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea-Bissau. Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 1-58826-077-1
Ellis, Stephen (2002). The Mask of Anarchy: The Destruction of Liberia and the Religious Roots of an African Civil War. C. Hurst & Co. ISBN 1-85065-417-4.