NDF vs PLF vs NRC

It's all the same sh it.

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Don't fully understand why they were killing people they surely knew were innocents...

That struck me as a bit harsh as well, and Agu's team didn't seem to be any better about it. Seems like when you come upon a group of people including women, children, and old people, with barely enough to feed and clothe themselves, and nary a weapon in the whole group, it's a pretty safe bet that they're not part of the opposing faction. I guess maybe they were preventing them from becoming enemies or supporting them in whatever way should they become desperate enough.

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Well that is always a bit of irony in many conflicts but especially in West African conflicts. From 1970-2000s there were plenty of groups that were "The Democratic this" or "People's Army that", but at the end of the day they did the same *beep* as other people.

I mean Hell, Agu fled his town because the government troops came in and murdered everyone; elderly, children, men, women, everyone.

His faction "fights against the government murderers", yet Agu and the others go into a town and murder everyone; elderly, children, men, women, everyone. Exact same *beep*

The objective is power, control, and wealth. Only difference is the color of the flag.

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NRC: National Reformation Council. Government soldiers looking to defend the existing government. Don't fully understand why they were killing people they surely knew were innocents...


Government does not equal good and democratic. If you listen to the background radio reports in the beginning the NRC is described as a military junta. Also later on we see a NRC slogan on a building "it is our turn to eat". Odds are the NRC was just another tribal faction that happened to hold the capital and so was the govt.

PLF: this is the one I am confused by. Not government/ NRC but also fights the NDF

In the beginning Agu describes his village as being in the UN protected buffer zone between the NRC and the PLF. From this we can deduce that at prior to the film there was another civil war with the main combatants being the NRC and PLF. The NDF is barely mentioned in the early radio reports. So we can assume that the main rebel group is actually the PLF.

NDF: Native Defence Force: Rebels wanting to replace the government the NRC is defending.

Given the name of the group it is likely that this was modeled on the Mai Mai forces in the Second Congo War which were originally community defence forced not allied to any ideology but simply defending thier village. They later emerged as thier own faction after a couple of charismatic leaders united them, but then simply fell into warlordism.

Something which I noted was that the govt forces seemed to harbour greater disgust to the NDF than the PLF. I would suspect that the the PLF is composed of a different tribe from the NRC but that the NDF is the same tribe as the NRC. So the for the Govt soldiers the PLF is the enemey but the NDF are traitors.

Also, there is a scene where the NDF attack a town and kill a lot of residents. Why would they do that to one town and not others?

Some towns pledge allegiance, other resist. The ones that resist get pillaged.

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