RIGHTS-SIERRA LEONE: Rebels Release 111 Children

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Jul 20 1999 (IPS) - Rebels in Sierra Leone have released 187 persons, among them 111 children between the ages of 11 and 17, they abducted in January.

The children, who were freed last week, were part of an estimated 3,500 minors kidnapped by rebels, when they invaded Freetown in January. They were held at the northern jungle base of Magbeni, about 60 kilometres from the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown.

Lt-Col. Chris Olukolade, the spokesperson of the Nigerian-led West African Peace-keeping force ‘ECOMOG’, says 68 of those released are pregnant and suckling females.

According to him, the group also includes child combatants, who had fought on the side of the rebel movement in its 8 years of military campaign against the Sierra Leonean government.

After thorough screening by ECOMOG personnel at the weekend, at its Cokerill headquarters, west of the capital, the children were handed over to the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) for counselling and reunification with their families.

Unicef officials told IPS this week that about half of the children were reunited with their families over the weekend. The child combatants are undergoing further counselling and the Family Homes Movement, a non-government organisation (ngo) based in Freetown, has been looking after them.

The stories told by the children range from gang-rape, and enslavement, to being forced to carry guns and looted items, to long distances.

A 16-year-old girl, who didn’t want to be named because two of her sisters are still being held by the rebels, told IPS: “I was raped by four rebel soldiers the very night we arrived at their base and since then, my role became a sex chattel for a group of young rebels, calling themselves “The Death Squad”.

She claims that “hundreds of teenage girls” are still being held against their wishes and are constantly being molested by rebels.

Many of the children appeared malnourished, as a result of hunger and lack of medicines in the bush. They revealed that their peers are dying daily in the bush and that urgent steps must be taken to secure their release.

This is the first batch of abductees to be freed by the rebels, since the signing of the Sierra Leonean Peace accord in Lome, Togo, two weeks ago.

The conflict in Sierra Leone erupted in 1991 when former army corporal Foday Sankoh, who is the leader of the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), launched a bush war to overthrow the government of then President Joseph Momoh.

Since then, more than 50,000 people are believed to have been killed, and almost a quarter of Sierra Leone’s 4.5 million people forced as refugees in neighbouring countries, and close to a 1,000 civilians having either their arms or legs slashed off by rebel forces.

The Lome peace accord calls for the “immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners of war and non- combatants.”

The Forum for African Women’s Educationists (FAWE) has set up counselling and healthcare outlets in parts of Freetown to address the problem of victims of rape, especially from rebel-held areas.

“We are encouraging all girls who have been sexually abused to come forward. We will help them,” says FAWE co-ordinator, Christina Thorpe.

The National League for Human Rights also has urged the government to put pressure on the RUF to release the more than 2,000 children still being held by the rebels.