Charles Taylor, the rebel. Photograph: Pascal Guyot/AFP
Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor
Charles Taylor was the 22nd president of Liberia. But before he took over the reigns, he was the leader of the rebel group National Patriotic Front of Liberia. He successfully overthrew President Samuel Doe, initiating the first Liberian War.
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Taylor had learned guerilla war tactics from deposed Libyan President, Muammar Gadaffi. The tactics came in handy when he led the armed uprising from Ivory Coast to Liberia.
He went to the extent of forcefully recruiting child soldier to do his bidding.
2003: A Liberian child soldier fighting for Taylor’s government
Photograph: Nic Bothma/EPA
The war led to the death of at least 200,000 people. Many others had their limbs chopped off or bodies tattooed with the initials of the soldiers.
Taylor was found guilty of 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, including murder, forced labour and slavery, recruiting child soldiers and rape. The International Criminal Court set him to 50 years in jail.
