regime from neighbouring Sierra Leone. The coup attempt failed and Quiwonkpa was killed and allegedly eaten. His body was publicly exhibited on the grounds of the Executive Mansion in Monrovia soon after his death. Mistreatment of the Gio and Mano ethnic groups (1985) The Gio and Mano ethnic groups were persecuted against because they were charged with treason against the state. Thus, they were seen as inferiors to the President's own tribe, the Krahn. The mistreatment of the Gio and Mano increased the tensions in Liberia, which had already been rising due to Doe's preferential treatment of his own group. Charles Taylor builds insurgent forces (1985-1989) Charles Taylor, who had left Doe's government after being accused of embezzlement, assembled a group of rebels in Côte d'Ivoire (mostly ethnic Gios and Manos who felt persecuted by Doe) who later became known as the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL). They invaded Nimba County on 24 December 1989. The Liberian Army retaliated against the whole population of the region, attacking unarmed civilians, mainly of the Mandingo tribe, and burning villages. Many left as refugees for Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire, but opposition to Doe was inflamed. Prince Johnson, an NPFL fighter, split to form his own guerrilla force soon after crossing the border, based on the Gio tribe and named Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL). First Liberian Civil War (1989-1997) Charles Taylor's force attacks (1989) Charles Taylor organized and trained indigenous northerners in Ivory Coast. During Doe's regime Taylor had served in the Liberian Government's General Services Agency, acting 'as its de facto director'. He fled to the United States in 1983 amid what Stephan Ellis describes as the 'increasingly menacing atmosphere in Monrovia' shortly before Thomas Quiwonkpa, Doe's chief lieutenant, fled into exile himself. Doe requested Taylor's extradition for embezzling $900,000 of Liberian government funds. Taylor was thus arrested in the United States and after sixteen months broke out of a Massachusetts jail in circumstances that are still unclear. Krahn vs Gio and Mano ethnic groups The NPFL initially encountered plenty of support within Nimba County, which had endured the majority of Samuel Doe's wrath after the 1985 attempted coup. Thousands of Gio and Mano joined when Taylor and his force of 100 rebels reentered Liberia in 1989, on Christmas Eve. Doe responded by sending two AFL battalions, including the 1st Infantry Battalion, to Nimba in December 1989-January 1990, apparently