10 Most Brutal African Dictators

5. Charles Taylor - Liberia

Liberia's history is unlike any other on the continent. Africa's first and oldest republic, the country was founded as an American colony for freed slaves and gained self-proclaimed independence in 1847, never coming under European colonial rule. Yet despite having a long and proud history of self-determination, even Liberia could not avoid falling under the jurisdiction of a typically brutal African dictator.

In 1985, after breaking out of Plymouth County Correctional Facility where he was serving time for embezzling millions of pounds from the Liberian government, Charles Taylor escaped to Libya. Under the tutelage of Colonel Gaddafi, Taylor learnt the art of guerrilla warfare, and when he finally returned to West Africa he put his teaching into practice by founding the National Patriotic Front of Liberia. From within the borders of neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire, Taylor and the Gaddafi-backed NPFL took Sebastian Doe's Liberia by force as the country fell into the lethiferous grip of civil war.

The conflict ended with the warlord Taylor triumphing in a presidential election. Unusually for an African dictator, the vote was said to be fair - but it was swung massively in Taylor's favour by his threat to resume hostilities in the case of his defeat. Taylor's victory meant that after a war which had claimed more than 200,000 lives, bloodshed in Liberia began to fade and there was reason for hope.

But the brutal streak within Taylor extended beyond his own borders. The war had resulted in an arms embargo in Liberia, so the president resorted to exchanging blood diamonds for weapons with the rebel Revolutionary United Front in neighbouring Sierra Leone. The UN accused him of being a diamond smuggler and a gunrunner. The charismatic Taylor responded by denying the claims at a mass prayer session, clad entirely in angelic white robes.

Ethnic divisions continued to rumble within his country, and after a second, even bloodier civil war, Taylor was exiled to Nigeria and in 2006 arrested and charged with eleven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Amongst the horrific atrocities were murder, sexual slavery, and the use of child soldiers - a feature of both the Liberian Civil War and Sierra Leone conflict. Taylor claimed he had been victimised by the charges. The Hague thought differently; he was ruled guilty on all eleven charges, and sentenced to serve fifty years imprisonment in HM Prison Frankland, County Durham.