The Use of Mercenary Troops in Sierra Leone and Africa
The Sierra Leone war was fought between the Sierra Leone Government and the RUF. The mercenaries of those were the children that fought in those wars. First of all, what exactly is a mercenary? According to the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Mercenary, hired professional soldier who fights for any state or nation without regard to political interests or issues. From the earliest days of organized warfare until the development of political standing armies in the mid-17th century, governments frequently supplemented their military forces with mercenaries” According to, Samuel Momodu, “The Sierra Leone Civil War was an armed conflict in the West African country of Sierra Leone from 1991–2002. The war began on March 23, 1991, when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) under Foday Sankoh, with support of Liberian rebel leader Charles Taylor and his group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NFPL),” (Momodu 2017) The Sierra Leone Civil War was one of the bloodiest wars in Africa. Over fifty thousand people have died and half a million left the country of four million people. The war was extremely violent because the RUF and the Sierra Leone government were both funded by “blood diamonds.” The RUF forced children from both sides to fight in the war. (Children Soldiers.) Another interesting fact is that the RUF used humans as shields and punished them by cutting off their arms and legs. They only did this punishment if they didn’t do what was asked. According to Study.com, “They would force civilians to work in the mines and sell those diamonds to fund their military campaign. Diamonds sold in order to help fuel a war are known as blood diamonds or conflict diamonds.” (2019) The blood diamond mines was not good for the country's economy. It made many the people living in Sierra Leone very poor and put their life to risk.
 |
| Mercenary soldiers |
I really enjoyed your post Corinna! Even though human's were used as shields and punished by cutting off their limbs by RUF's is not the most appealing thing to hear I am really glad you included it in your research exercise because it helps explain the impact of the RUF's.
ReplyDelete50000 died
ReplyDelete500000 left the country in a total population of about 4000000? this a big reminder that while some countries are thriving others are completely falling apart