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CHILD SOLDIERS
by Brima Lakoh, a student of the Saint Edwards Secondary School Freetown, Sierra Leone
These are young boys and girls who are also in the army. These children have
decided or forced to join the army. In most parts of Africa, children are
forced to join the army when they find out that the big army men are not
sincere. countries like Sierra Leone,Liberia,Uganda and Somalia are some of
the countries which are forcing children to hold gun.
These commanders will call them one by one to give them drugs , which act on
there nervous system, cocain, tobacco, and alchohol. Those are the children
that are chosen to fight, burning houses, kill innocent civillians.
Also, when the war started in Sierra Leone rebels were taking children from
there homes and put them in the bush for training, some eight days
training in the bush, will take them to a rich place called 'Kono', where
they mine diamonds. Then the children will love money and not books, killing
for money. They will forget education is better than silver and gold. They
will sometimes work illicitly in the mining areas for their bossmen, rebel
bossmen and when the diamond is found they big ones will sell them to
Liberia, Libya, Ivory Coast, Belgium, France etc and the money will not come
to benefit the child soldier for food and shelter or clothe or shooling but
to buy more guns and amunition to fight and kill again.
These are some of the things which will make them to continue become child
soldiers.
