SIERRA LEONE: Captured Child Soldiers Handed Over To Unicef

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Feb 19 1999 (IPS) - The West African peace-keeping force ECOMOG has handed over more than 50 captured child fighters to the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) for detraumatisation and reunification with their families.

The children, some as young as ten, were among the rebel contingent that stormed the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown last month, and were involved in some of the atrocities committed against civilians there.

ECOMOG, which is propping the beleaguered government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, said the children were “thoroughly screen after being disarmed, counselled and then handed over to Unicef and other child protection agencies” this week.

“These kids were mostly active in the east and central parts of the capital and were in the forefront of setting houses on fire, burning vehicles and looting homes,” remarks Jeneba Sankoh, whose two daughters were raped at gunpoint in central Freetown.

“I saw dozens of them in action and as a mother of five, I felt terrible at the way these kids carried out their acts,” says Sankoh.

The children were handed over in a moving ceremony, at army headquarters in western Freetown this week.

While the ceremony was taking place, parents and relatives of other children reported missing, were putting out messages on local radios about the disappearance of their children, in the wake of the rebel assault on the capital.

The child fighters recount horrific tales of murder, rape, arson and amputations, and some of them carry names such as ‘Young Killer’, ‘Junior Blood’ and the ‘Destroyer’.

“I single-handedly burned down 80 houses in the east end of the city and set alight 15 cars belonging to civilians,” boasted one of the ex-child soldier.

The boy, who is about 14, said burning of houses was his assignment and that he was abducted in the northern district of Bombali a year ago, by rebels.

Another, who gave his name as ‘Junior Blood’, confessed to having killed some 25 civilians and amputated the arms and wrists of several more.

All of the child combatants admitted to having acted under the influence of cocaine and other hard drugs.

“Our commandoes give us drugs to get us high on the job of destruction and we really don’t realise that we are doing anything bad,” one of the children told IPS.

Unconfirmed reports say over a hundred children were abducted by the joint forces of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, who invaded Freetown last month.

Many have still not been traced and there are fears that like their peers before them, they too may be fed with hard drugs and pressganged into fighting.

The child combatant problem, though not new in the Sierra Leonean conflict which erupted in 1991, is becoming ever complex. Before the invasion of Freetown, Unicef, in collaboration with child protection agencies, had demobilised more than 500 child fighters and was in the process of reintegrating some into society.

“This is our greatest problem now because the rebels know the former kid fighters, so they either force them to join once again, or kills them, so we are starting all over again,” a Unicef official told IPS on Thursday.

Swaray, a former child soldier, says dozens of his peers may be hiding in parts of the city for fear that they may be killed if they surface.

“Some of us were used as spies by the rebels. The sent us into the city to study ECOMOG troop movement and military strength to prepare the way for the Jan 6 assault,” he says.

Last weekend, a group of twelve child fighters were rounded up by ECOMOG in eastern Freetown, when hunger forced them to step out of their hiding places in search of food.

Child combatants are believed to be mostly fighting alongside the RUF rebels, who roughly have more than a thousand of them. The pro-government militia, Kamajors, also have child fighters in their fold, but they have embarked on the process of demobilising them.