Sierra Leone's war cuts short childhoods

Origin

Impact on children

What should be done?

What is Save the Children doing?

Adamasay, 16-year-old amputee

Our messages

The RUF (Revolutionary United Front), an armed group opposed to a government it condemned as corrupt, invaded Sierra Leone from bases in Liberia in 1991. Many soldiers of the Sierra Leone Army also joined the struggle against the government. In response, the government armed "civilian defence forces" to defend themselves and the country. West African (ECOMOG) troops were sent in to support the elected government. Armed conflict swept across different areas of the country for eight years, causing massive displacement. It is estimated that 70 per cent of the population of over four million has been displaced, often several times, as many people fled outbreaks of fighting.

A peace agreement between the government and the RUF was signed in July 1999, and a national programme of demobilisation has been launched. But few combatants have yet come forward, and armed groups continue to launch raids on villages, which cause further small-scale displacement.

What has been the impact on children?

Hundreds of thousands of children are still displaced, and living in IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps, with relatives, or in poor quality housing in the towns to which they and their families fled. They suffer what displaced people everywhere suffer – the break-up of their families and communities, with their mutual support systems, the loss of homes, property and often access to health and education services. If their parents are unable to find work, children's vulnerability increases, and they may be forced into hazardous work to help their families survive.

Children at Grafton Camp for Displaced Photo: © Jenny Matthews

10,000 Sierra Leonean children have become separated from their families during the displacement process. They are especially vulnerable, and may end up in informal foster care, in institutions, or on the street. The national family tracing system is weak, and it is a huge problem trying to find and reunite parents and children, especially where parents or children have fled across national borders, or where children were too young at the time of separation to remember their parents or where they came from.

During the eight year conflict, perhaps 15,000 children were attached to the fighting forces, many of them as a result of forcible abduction. It appears that most boys who spent any length of time in the fighting forces were active combatants from the age of about eight, when they became able to cock and load a rifle. The girls were routinely raped, and forced to serve as commanders' 'wives' and servants.

In some conflicts, children are accidental victims of violence, when they step on landmines or get caught in crossfire. But in Sierra Leone, children have been deliberately targeted. During the invasion of Freetown in January 1999, rebels attacked the poor area of the city, where large numbers of families displaced from rural areas had settled. Over 4,000 children were abducted during a two week attack on the capital, and 2,000 are still missing a year later. Children have been murdered along with the rest of their families, or permanently disabled by deep machete wounds which often resulted in the amputation of limbs.

What should be done?

Internally displaced people are the responsibility of their own government, unlike refugees. But Sierra Leone is one of the world's poorest countries, and has been at the bottom of the UNDP Human Development Index for much of the past decade. The country's economic base is in ruins, and the government is unable to provide for the one million people it says are still internally displaced.

Sierra Leone is receiving humanitarian assistance, but it goes nowhere near meeting the country's needs. The government is prioritising the demobilisation process, because unless ex-combatants are dealt with, there is no prospect of sustainable peace. But this does mean, in the eyes of ordinary Sierra Leoneans, that assistance is being given to the perpetrators of violence, while their victims, including the displaced, are ignored.

The government is now coming under pressure from the food agencies, which supply camp rations, to close down the IDP camps, and send displaced people home. But this is not realistic, while much of the country remains unsafe, and only about 4,000 of an estimated 45,000 combatants have yet disarmed.

What is Save the Children doing?

Save the Children is rapidly becoming a lead child protection agency. Our priorities are:

• helping the government to strengthen the national family tracing system, through provision of equipment and intensive training, in order to reunite separated children with their families.
  
• managing an interim care centre in Daru, Eastern Province, for children released from the fighting forces, and working alongside a national NGO, Caritas, at a similar centre in Port Loko, Northern Province.
  
• helping 3 local communities in Freetown to prepare for the return of ex-combatants, and seeking families willing to foster adolescent ex-combatants who cannot go home.
  
• working with the community in Daru to monitor child protection issues during the long rehabilitation process, and to help all returnees, whether refugees, displaced people or ex-combatants. Save the Children will work jointly with communities on rehabilitation projects.

Adamasay, 16-year-old amputee

Adamasy and friends Photo: © Jenny Matthews

"We were living in a small village in Port Loko district when rebels attacked us. This was in February 1998.

It was daytime and we tried to run away but I was unfortunate to be captured.

After that they asked me to put my hand on a stick which was on the ground and they chopped at my right hand. Then they ran away and left me. I tried to go into the bush to find my mother who was hiding there. Luckily I found her and my father and my brothers. They were all in the bush. They took me to the next village. My hand hadn't been completely chopped so the doctor at Kambia cut it off. Then I was brought to Connaught hospital. I spent four days there then I was discharged and went to stay with my mother in Freetown.

We were living there until January 1999, but then on the 6th the house was burnt down by rebels and that's how I ended up here, together with four members of my family who don't have anywhere else to go.

It's hard to find a boyfriend when your hand has been cut. My hope is to be able to have a small business like a shop."

 

Save the Children in Daru Daru is a community of about 10,000 people in the east of Sierra Leone. It is the only town in the east not controlled by rebel forces, despite 55 attacks since March 1998. Daru has become an "island", surrounded by RUF-controlled territory, and defended by West African (ECOMOG) troops. Most of the town's original inhabitants fled the fighting; it is thought that 75 per cent of the people now in the town are displaced from villages elsewhere. Save the Children moved into Daru in September 1999, and has constructed an Interim Care Centre to take children released from the fighting forces in the east. Boys and girls will be helped to come to terms with their experiences and prepared for reintegration into the community, while Save the Children tries to trace their families. Foster families will be sought for those whose families cannot be traced. As yet, there has been very little demobilisation in this area, the RUF heartland, and very few children have been released. This has given Save the Children a breathing space to work with the local community, to discuss their hopes and fears about having ex-combatants in their town and even in their own families. Local children have asked to be part of the welcoming committee, and have suggested ways in which they can get involved in programmes we are developing for the children in the Interim Care Centre. They are now very enthusiastic about receiving their "friends from the bush". Child protection committees have been set up, to assist all returnees, whether refugees, displaced or ex-combatants, but also to discuss wider issues affecting children's welfare, for example the harsh beatings that are seen as necessary for discipline. We are also learning about the coping systems which have enabled this beleaguered community to survive, in order to work through them to encourage long-term rehabilitation. It is clearly important that all the people in the community are assisted to rebuild their lives, and not simply those children who were unfortunate enough to get involved with the fighting forces. If the peace holds, Daru's displaced people will begin to come home, and those now in the town may want to return to their own villages. We are discussing how we can work together on projects of particular benefit to children, for example by getting schools up and running again, or through skills training for young people.

Our messages

• To the commanders of the fighting factions:
  Disarm, release all abducted children, and help to make the whole country safe for people to go home.
  
  
• To the government:
  Prioritise the needs of children, who have suffered so intensely during the conflict.
  
  
• To the international community:
  Support the peace process, not only by funding demobilisation, but also by giving sufficient assistance to help the entire war-affected population to rebuild.

Donations

If you wish to help Save the Children in Sierra Leone. You can donate to Save the Children on 0171 701 8916, or call our credit card hotline on 0171 701 0894.

How your donations may be used

60p		feeds a child who has been a child soldier, in an interim care centre for a day (the centre helps children readjust while Save the Children tries to find their families or a foster family)
£2.50		provides a sleeping mat for a child in a care centre
£15.00		buys a kit for an ex-child soldier, containing soap, plate, spoon, mug and spare clothes
£20.00		will buy a Polaroid camera to photograph separated children for family tracing
£500		will feed 120 released child soldiers for a week
£3,000		will buy recreational and sports equipment for the thousands expected to pass through Save the Children's Interim Care Centre in Daru