SIERRA LEONE-POPULATION: Children of the Forest Rescued

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Feb 25 1997 (IPS) - More than 200 children roaming the thick forests in Sierra Leone’s eastern district have been rescued in a government operation launched to find the ‘forest children’.

The rescue operation, which started last week, involves government soldiers and members of the Kamajor militia which is made up of local hunters.

Kenema and Kailahun districts in the eastern part of the country where the civil war started six years ago are the targetted areas for the operation.

“We believe there are thousands of these children still wandering in the bushes not knowing exactly where to go,” said Foday Sesay, a field worker attached to the Ministry of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement.

“Our aim is to liberate these children, get them medication and then re-unite them with members of their families,” Sesay added.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) here, hundreds of children were drafted into the war, sometimes forcefully, as child soldiers or cannon fodder, while others fled to the bush after their parents were killed.

Sierra Leone’s civil war began on March 23, 1991 when rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) invaded the country from the eastern borders with neighbouring Liberia. Between 10-15 thousand people have been killed and up to a quarter of the population (about 4.5 million) have been displaced.

Last year in November, a peace agreement was signed between the rebels and the government in Cote D’Ivoire, but reports of violence continue throughout the country.

“Most of the kids (found in the forest) are malnourished and may be suffering from various forms of diseases, as a result of lack of food, good drinking water and medicines,” said Father Johannes George, the head of the Catholic Diocese in Kenema.

“Some of the children have been put in an interim care centre in Kenema for medical observation and my information is that they are undergoing treatment,” Father George added.

According to military sources here, more children are expected to be found in the forest as the operation continues. The children are turned over to officials within rehabilitation camps which have been sponsored by UNICEF and other agencies.

“We are rehabilitating over 200 children who fought as boy soldiers on either the government or rebel side and these forest children are just a new angle to the problem of children associated with the war,” said Arthur Scotland-Nicol the manager of the Grafton camp for demobilised boy soldiers, a UNICEF- sponsored rehabilitation scheme.

“What is more apparent with these children is the psychological traumas they exhibit in their behaviours,” Scotland- Nicol added.

According to sources close to the army brigade headquarters in Kenema, many of the children found, aged between 9 and 15, suffer from malaria, dysentry and anaemia. “We buried more than 10 of our friends in the forest, who had died from illnesses,” one of the children, who gave his name as Morie said.

Morie disclosed that he and many of the children had lost their parents in the war and that they fled to the forests when the RUF rebels attacked and razed their villages.

“There was nothing left for us to do. Our homes were destroyed, parents killed. We didn’t have a future and I personally thought I could never again set foot at school,” the 12-year-old boy said.

Another boy, age 14, said he had lived in the forest for about four years feeding on wild fruits, rats and birds. “It is hard to explain,” Brima Goba said. “It was only the hand of God that kept us going. I personally saw some of my friends die because they could no longer stand hunger and disease,” he added.

The children found are being cared for by the Catholic mission in Kenema, the Red Cross, the World Food Programme and UNICEF. The relief organisations have provided food, clothing and medicine, while the re-tracing committee of the Ministry of Rehabilitation has started to try and locate any family members of the children.