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The study shows that the accords resulted from stalemates contrived by external military interventions. Third parties, including neighboring states, subregional organizations, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the United Nations, and Western donors, also exerted political and economic pressure on the warring parties to sign the peace accords. Some factions also signed the accords because of promises of power sharing.
The agreements, with the exception of the Abuja II Accord of the Liberian civil war, however, failed to end the conflicts. The reasons for the failure are: proliferation of armed factions; opposition from soldiers who were facing demobilization; presence of ‘spoilers’; hostility of neighboring states toward the accords; and inadequate assistance from the international community. In contrast, the Abuja II Accord was implemented successfully because of rapprochement between Charles Taylor and the Nigerian military government under General Sani Abacha. Second was the consensus among Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to support the peace process. Third, members of the international community gave major assistance to the Abuja II Accord.