At a glance: Sierra Leone
Real lives
Sierra Leonean children tell their side of the story.
Children were at the core of the brutal civil war that gripped Sierra Leone. They witnessed horrible violence, were subjected to systematic abuse and, in many cases, were forced to become combatants themselves. Rape, mutilation, forced prostitution and senseless killings were part of these children’s daily experiences. The war deprived them of an education and, worse, confronted them with the most brutal expressions of human cruelty at an early age, shattering their childhood.
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