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Child Fighter
by Mohamed Sidibay, age 10, Lucisse Preparatory School, Freetown, Sierra Leone
My name is Mohamed Sidibay presently reisding in
Freetown , Sierra Leone. Formally a child soldier
during the ten year cevil war in my country Sierra
Leone.
I was aged five (5) in 1991 in a diamond mining
Town called Kono . I was preparing to go to town
with my mother and father on a Saturdy. I was
inside our house dressing when the Revolutionary
United Front (RUF) rebels attacked . As I rushed
out hearing the gun-shots , my parents were no
where to be found. As a lad I ran into the
crowd and was soon captured by these fierce
fighters under the command of Comanding
Officer(C.O) Rambo ( a great rebelfighter).
I became a beast of burden carrying heavy
bundles from one end of the country to another .
I had to tote a very heavy load from Kono ( an
eastern province) to Makeni ( a northern
province) which is ninty five (95) miles within two
days on bare foot. This our master C.O Rambo was
killed as a result of conflict between him and his
senior called C.O Issa.
On our arrival in Makeni , we immediately started
training to be childrebels ready to fight
government and foreign troops. In all this
struggles I was not the only lad to show out
early mussles in the lions dens but we were
captured in bunches from different places.
We later finished training and were ready to
tour Kailahun another distant Eastern Town on
foot.In this tour we took three days and Kailahun
was our national fortress. We based in this
Eastern Town for three Months but was totally
discarded by the raid of the Nigerian fighter jet
of the Economc Community Monitory Group(
ECOMOG) of West Africa. Our headquarter was
forcefully bomberded and killed many child and
senior fighters .
We later struggled to gather and regain military
might ; we ended up assemblying but with less
military strength. C.O Issa who we were under at
that time appealed and gathered enough human
and sorphisticated weapon power ready for the
big fight in Freetown the capital city of
Sierra Leone. Freetown was the strongest base for
the government and foreign forces. As a lad
hailing amongst lions I was hard-up and was
ready for a die or live fight in Freetown.
We left in 1998 for Freetown and destroyed every
obstacle on our way. After a four(4) day walking
and fighting we arrived at the frontier part of
Freetown where we met the Guinean ECOMOG troop.
Unfortunately for us they over came us ,therefore
we made a tarctical retreat . A day after we
re-attacked and finally infiltrated into the
city with full force and high man power. We
entered Freetown on the unforgetable January
six(6) 1999. The city was turned up-side down with
alienated weapons shouting all about. We
occupied the Eastern and Central Town( inclusive
of State House and Parliament) for two consecutive
weeks and some days.
We were later pushed out by the Nigerian ECOMOG
force and in our return burnt down many houses
and destroyed every life we met on our way. We
kept destroying until we reached Port Loko a
major town in North .This was where peace talk
was said between the government and our force;
peace was gained for a short while.
One Catholic priest called father Bethon went
to receive all child fighters and be brought to
Freetown and other areas for re-union with our
families.
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