Table of Contents
What role did child soldiers play in the Sierra Leone civil war?
The term child soldier does not only include those who carry a gun and fight. Children also served as messengers and porters, and young girls were conscripted into sexual slavery or forcibly married to generals. Children are chosen to be soldiers because they are easily manipulated.
Who is Joseph Kony and what is the Lord’s Resistance Army?
Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan rebel group that originated in 1987 in northern Uganda among ethnic Acholi communities. The Acholi suffered serious abuses at the hands of successive Ugandan governments in the turbulent 1970s and 1980s.
How many child soldiers did Joseph Kony have?
He is currently one of the most wanted African militants as well. He has been accused by government entities of ordering the abduction of children to become child soldiers and sex slaves. Approximately 66,000 children became soldiers, and 2 million people were displaced internally from 1986 to 2009 by his forces.
Did the Sierra Leone government use child soldiers?
Roughly 10,000-14,000 child soldiers in Sierra Leone fought between 1991 and 2002 in the Sierra Leone Civil War. Children fought on both sides of the conflict. Nearly half of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and a quarter of the governmental armed forces consisted of children aged 8–14 years old.
Why did Joseph Kony abduct children?
Joseph Kony wasn’t able to maintain the group’s numbers or regional support, so he started abducting children to fill the ranks of his army. What had started out as a rebel movement to end the oppression of the north became an oppression of the north in itself. Joseph Kony’s tactics were – and remain – brutal.
How did children become child soldiers in Sierra Leone?
Causes Leading to Child Soldiers Initial recruitment of children was possible because of the acceptance of children in the workforce, and then grew to a crisis as the RUF and state militias abducted children into conscription. Economic conditions in Sierra Leone are traditionally poor.
What happens to child soldiers after the war?
Recruitment into the atrocities of war often affects every aspect of a child’s development. Children experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), not to mention any injuries they might accrue that did not receive medical attention, deprivation of food and shelter and lack of education.
How are child soldiers affected?
Extreme psychological and emotional trauma, severe battle wounds, loss of hearing, loss of limbs, blindness, rejection by family and community, disease (including HIV/AIDS), violence/abuse, drug addiction, rape and unwanted pregnancy, malnutrition and death, are some of the consequences for child combatants.