The Sierra Leone war took place from “1991 to 2002” (CNN). The war was a treacherous war and all went into place because the president wouldn’t do anything about the economy, so the citizens took it upon themselves to handle it. The war brought many deaths, child soldiers, and kidnappings. People who would get kidnapped by rebel forces or brought into the Governments’ army to become soldiers, human shields, spies, porters and/or sex slaves ( The New York Times). Rebel forces tried to overthrow the government. They caused most deaths and had a certain way to mark their victims. They would mark them by cutting off limbs and/or burning their logo onto the flesh (The New York Times). The Rebels would kidnap the children or young adults, line them up in a line, and pick the healthiest ones out of the group. They would force these children or young adults to become one of their soldiers and fight against the government or else they would face consequences such as death. The rebel children force had estimated “between 40 and 50 percent of the insurgents’ total force strength of around 15,000 (The New York Times). This war had helped increase the amount of child soldiers. According to the New York Times “there are now an estimated 300,000 child soldiers worldwide, a figure that has increased by one-sixth during the last three years” (The New York Times). Although it might seem like the rebels are only the bad ones, the Government also used child soldiers. The Government defends this by saying it is a “kind of social-welfare program” (The New York Times). Many of these child soldiers were from their families. Ishmael Beah, a child that was in the war and got separated from his family, speaks out about the moments he had been separated. He said “I had gone to a talent show, I was interested in American hip-hop music, with my older brother, to another town and my town was attacked. I went from having an entire family to the next minute not having anything. It was very painful”(CNN). The children had just been young, but had to grow up into soldiers in a short period of time in order to live. The children that did grow up had to kill, sometimes even people they knew. M.G., a 10-year-old at the time, tells of his first experience having to kill. His commander lined up 10 boys, who he had recognized. The boys tried to convince M.G. to not kill them and he then says his commander told him, “kill them. If you don’t, I will kill you.’ He put his gun to my head”(The New York Times), He then had to kill his five friends. Later he goes on to say that he had to kill so many people it got to the point that “you don’t count the people you kill”, “you just see the bodies on the ground afterward” (The New York Times). The war was declared over in 2002(CNN). Overall the Sierra Leone war was a gruesome civil war that caused many deaths. Some of these deaths tried to be avoided by running away but in most cases the families would get split up after running, some getting killed, some having to roam around. The people found by the rebels would get killed or recruited to become soldiers. The recruiters had to kill, sometimes even people they knew. The war ended in 2002 and had taken place in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The war brought people an unimaginable situation.
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