Here is IGR's initial analysis of Sierra Leone’s Nov 26 failed coup. The localized violence that took place on November 26 and the chain of other incidences in the last few years revealed that Sierra Leoneans are fighting enemies that live in the same communities with them. To support institutions responsible for building peace and security we employed social science techniques, primary and secondary evidence to analyze the incentives and solutions to the Nov failed coup. Our basic conclusion is that although individual political party members might be named as suspects, there is no evidence that the 26 November incident was carried out by a political party, ethnic or regional grouping. Rather, the event was merely an attempt by known ‘violence entrepreneurs who wanted to capture the state in ways similar to 1997 – for their self-regarding ends. Political party sentiment, ethnicity and economic hardship are simply tools exploited to gain public support for their cause; shielding their real desire to control and loot the state.