Lansana Gberie

Lansana Gberie is a Sierra Leonean academic and journalist who is editing the papers presented at our conference on Sierra Leone. He has been Senior Research Fellow at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra, Ghana. Gberie has written extensively on conflict and conflict management in Africa, including, most recently, A Dirty War in West Africa: The RUF and the Destruction of Sierra Leone (Hurst/University of Indiana Press, 2005). The book built upon his MA thesis for Wilfrid Laurier University entitled “War and tate Collapse: The Case of Sierra Leone” (1997). His scholarly articles have appeared inAfrican Affairs (Oxford University Press), Africa Development (CODESRIA), and Globalizations. Gberie has been a key researcher for Partnership Africa Canada’s Human Security and International Diamond Trade project, and was co-author of The Heart of the Matter: Sierra Leone, Diamonds and Human Security (2000). He has since authored many reports and studies for the Project, and is editor of the Sierra Leone Annual Diamond Review. These reports and studies can be found on www.pacweb.org. Gberie’s chief interest is conflict and security in the Mano River Union area of West Africa (Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea). He writes regularly for Africa Week and New African magazines.

lagberie@yahoo.com