The Forgotten War: The Sierra Leone Civil War

The war in Sierra Leone was hideous. Everyone in the country was affected in one way or another. Whether they personally were injured, had a loved one killed or got recruited to fight, no one was left unscathed. Many of the effects will affect the families financially. Sierra Leone needs funding to help families stay out of poverty and to rebuild their country after the war.

The people of Sierra Leone have been affected by war in many ways. One of these is physical disabilities. Many people in Sierra Leone have injuries from the war that will never be properly fixed. In the video “The Forgotten War: The Sierra Leone Civil War” there was images of children who had limbs cut off by the rebels. These limbs will never grow back and the only way

they could get prosthetic limbs is if they travelled overseas which they do not have the money to do. In the well-known autobiography A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah recounts of an instance where a boy got one of his eyes plucked out during a fight when Ishmael Beah was in rehabilitation. Both of these body parts will never grow back and the only way that they could get the medical assistance required to get the prosthetic limbs or eye is if they travelled overseas because Sierra Leone does not have the resources required. The people of Sierra Leone are too poor to afford to go overseas to get it done so will just have to live without the body parts. These injuries would also affect them in later life because they will not be able to do some jobs and so will be unable to provide for their families. These people need funding to help them get the resources required to help them or to help them travel overseas to get the prosthetics required. This would help these children to get close to a normal life again and do the activities that they enjoyed pre-war.

As well as having physical problems some of the people of Sierra Leone also have PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) from the war.

A major part of PTSD is the guilt that they have to put up with from killing people. This leads to not wanting to discuss their past with some people and therefore they are unable to form lasting relationships because of a lack of trust. An example of this is in the well-known autobiography A Long Way Gone where Ishmael Beah recounts of a time when he is living with his uncle and his cousin Allie takes him to a dance where Ishmael meets a girl. A few days later he sees her again and they start going out. After a few weeks she starts asking questions that Ishmael does not want to answer and so they break up. Another part of PTSD that some people have to suffer is the memories. Even years after the war, they will still be having memories of what happened during the war. When Ishmael Beah was in rehabilitation he saw things related to war that were not actually there. An example of this is when Ishmael is in rehabilitation, when he turns on a tap and all he sees is blood coming out. Others in rehabilitation also saw things from the war that were not actually there such as heads that were actually rocks. Another part of the war that comes under PTSD is the loss of loved ones. An example of someone who has lost a loved one is Ishmael’s aunty who lost her husband during the war. To help her rebuild her family she will need some financial support so

she can buy the items required for her and her family to survive in Sierra Leone. Another part that comes under PTSD is the destruction of the villages by the army and the rebels to get supplies. If some people did manage to survive the war by running from it and then returned home afterwards they would return to find their villages destroyed. They need funding to rebuild their villages and their country. Most of these parts of PTSD will go on for years after the war. Some of them can be fixed with funding but most of them are just about permanent. This shows that even though they are not physically at war, for years they will still be mentally at war.

Another thing that needs funding in Sierra Leone is the aid agencies. At the end of the war an agreement was signed that granted the RUF (the rebels) some seats in parliament. After this agreement was come to, the people of Sierra Leone rushed into cities to get food from the aid agencies as those who had survived had not got much food as the rebels and army were stopping anyone from leaving their house so they could not go to buy any food. This overwhelmed the aid agencies as they did not have enough food for everybody. With some funding, the aid agencies working in Sierra Leone will be able to provide enough food and supplies for anybody who needs it.

Sierra Leone is in a very bad state after the war. A lot of the villages were destroyed and many people can not work because of injuries and PTSD. If they were to get funding, it would help them to rebuild their country and keep people out of poverty. This would help people like Ishmael Beah’s aunty a lot because after losing her husband she and lots of others from Sierra Leone need help to rebuild their families and their country.