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WritingsOur writings section features stories addressing the issue of ChildSoldiers written by youth in Sierra LeoneThis Is My Storyby Mohamed Kuteh, a student of the Sierra Leone Grammar SchoolHello Friends, My name is Mohamed Kuteh a student of the Sierra Leone grammar school. This is my story... Everywhere in the world where there are conflicts and wars. The children tend to be used as key factors in fighting. Countless numbers of these children are forced to join whilst others are determined and willing to join because of lack of parental care. Most of these children are under the ages of 18 and are used as tools by the politicians and other elderly people in the society in order to fight for or against the government. The situation of child soldiers is very rampant in the African continent. Countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda and many others use children in armed conflicts. Most of these children were separated from their parents. They are sometimes between the ages of 4-14 years old and trained up in the bush and become very dangerous like wild animals. These children are given a chemical substance that s their daily food during battle, it makes these children to be more and more dangerous like a bush fire in the harmattan.' Worst of all, they are armed with heavy artilleries and other big machine weapons like A.K.-47, RPG, and others. They use these weapons to launch a barrage of attacks on highways, towns and villages, seas and every corner of the country. They also use weapons like culasses and knives that they use to amputate and inject the stomachs of pregnant women. They challenge themselves over the pregnant woman's stomach by saying that the unborn baby is a boy or girl so by this, way they slit the stomach of the woman with crude knives and uproot the unborn baby. Some of these child soldiers also like burning houses, whilst dancing as the flames go up. They like killing innocent civilians while others like to rape pregnant women and highly educated women in the community. I am of course talking about (child soldiers who are boys}. Some child soldiers, particular the rebel child soldier, will ask their peers who they capture to kill their fathers or mothers. If anyone refuses to take their command, they will kill that person., but if the captive kills his mother, he or she is asked to drink the blood. To some bad extent, the body is prepared for them to eat as meat. They loot valuable properties that make them quarrel most times over the vulture practice. The quarrel leads them to shoot and kill each other and other innocent civilians around them. Finally, I think that the great violence and involvement of children in armed conflicts must be stopped immediately because if child soldiers are not stopped in such conflicts and war, there will be no peaceful atmosphere for the others growing up tomorrow. The only thing that the governments and other local and international non-governmental organizations should do is to create disarmament, demobilization and resettlement programs in order to integrate these children into society again. |