Human Rights: Sierra Leone Child Soldiers

Article: Sierra Leone Rebels Forcefully Recruit Child Soldiers
NPR Interview: Ishmael Beah's Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

     One of the most infamous areas of the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991-2002)was the use of child soldiers in combat. The civil war began when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) tried to overthrow the current government. The RUF is still active today as a political party, however, during the war it was the RUF that began kidnapping children and forcing them to fight in their ranks. The amount of children who were forced to serve is unknown, but the number is thought to be around 11,000. Most of these children were among the ages of 7-12, but they kidnapped children as young as 5. Often children were scared into recruitment while staying in refugee camps. The RUF would visit them and force them into joining their ranks. The boys kidnapped would be forced to fight, sometimes at the front lines of combat, or to help transport military resources and weapons. The girls kidnapped would often be forced into prostitution. The children would be exposed to violent atrocities, some were even forced to kill their own parents, to get the kids used to what they would see in war. They were known for how obedient and brutal they could be in combat.



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