FACTBOX: Sierra Leone's civil war

(Reuters) - Sierra Leone's special war crimes court sentenced three former leaders of the country's AFRC militia to jail terms ranging from 45-50 years on Thursday.

Here are some key facts about Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war.

* The war began in 1991 when ex-army corporal Foday Sankoh and his Revolutionary United Front took up arms against then President Joseph Momoh, seizing towns near Liberia's border.

* Although the rebels found some popularity at first, they earned a reputation for murder, rape, mutilation and recruiting child soldiers. Other factions also committed atrocities.

* The war was funded partly by diamonds mined in southern and eastern Sierra Leone. This helped lead to a global campaign against so-called blood diamonds mined in conflict zones.

* The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), a group of army officers allied to the rebels, overthrew elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in 1997. A Nigerian-led regional force reinstated Kabbah within a year.

* A truce was agreed in 1999 after heavy fighting in Freetown, but it fell apart in 2000. Former colonial power Britain sent troops to help a struggling U.N. force.

* Driven back into the countryside, rebels allowed U.N. troops to deploy to the areas they held in 2001. Disarmament was completed in 2002 and the war was formally declared over.

* Kabbah was re-elected in May 2002. The RUF, standing as a political party, won little support in the ballot. Sankoh died in prison in 2003 while facing a war crimes indictment.

* The death toll from the war is estimated at 50,000 in a country that now has more than 6 million people. Sierra Leone ranked second from bottom in the 2006 U.N. Human Development Index.

* Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was put on trial in June 2007 in The Hague on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone's civil war.