Discuss The Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Abbabfrica People's Liberation Army

C:The use of child soldiers is reaching the level of an epidemic in Sierra Leone and besides the sheer number of children in the armed forces they are also subjugated to many inhumane and awful environments.E: The use of children in warfare was once simple and honorable with basic rules that all would follow. Drummer boys and flag bearers were positions of honor that came with extreme consequence for those who would dare to harm them. E: Now, however, children are becoming so involved that one may even say that an entire army is comprised of adolescents. In Sierra Leone, one would find that there is a extremely large child soldier population within the rebel group, RUF or the Revolutionary United Front, and the government forces. To quote Linda

reality of the most brutal 20th century civil war in Sierra Leone. Mariatu tells a very

This new country fresh from being colonized had an army but very few Congolese officers just mainly army regulars. The country kept many foreign officers as the military trained local soldiers for leadership positions. Many soldiers saw no chance for advancement and it seemed to be the same conditions as they experienced before independence. An atmosphere of discontent grew rampant for foreigners still in positions of power. On July 05, 1960 the army had a revolt against these white officers near Leopoldville. They also attacked many Europeans targets in the area. Large groups of mutineers paraded over the area attacking any foreign interest they could find. There was wide spread looting and pillaging. The white population was targeted primarily. With the area in total chaos and no one to police the unrest, the local white population had to flee. The majority of the white refugees had to go to Brazzaville and Stanleyville to escape certain death. The unstable government and the clear inability to control the military and the people created concern locally and internationally.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier and the recent 2006 film Blood Diamond both depict how it was living in Sierra Leone, Africa during the Civil War in the ‘90’s. While A Long Way Gone focuses on child soldiers and what they had to live and go through for many years, Blood Diamond focuses mainly on how the country is torn apart by the struggle between government soldiers and rebel forces. The film portrays many of the atrocities of that war, including the rebels' amputation of people's hands to stop them from voting in upcoming elections. Both the movie and the book try to tackle major issues by asking the questions: how

Aided by the regime’s increasingly repressive character, the guerrillas were able to achieve a broad political-military front that combined strikes, street demonstrations, and political pressures with veteran guerrilla fighters and hundreds of new recruits. The dictatorship fell on July 19, 1979”

In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, a former boy soldier with the Sierra Leone army during its civil war(1991- 2002) with the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), provides an extraordinary and heartbreaking account of the war, his experience as a child soldier and his days at a rehabilitation center. At the age of twelve, when the RUF rebels attack his village named Mogbwemo in Sierro Leone, while he is away with his brother and some friends, his life takes a major twist. While seeking news of his family, Beah and his friends find themselves constantly running and hiding as they desperately strive to survive in a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. During this time, he loses his dear ones and left alone in the

The Sierra Leone government also took up child combatants, they were best known as rarray boys. Abdullah describes these young men as ‘thugs’, they worked for politicians and caused much trouble throughout the community. The rarray boys were violent, they used drugs and often stole from their fellow people (45). The war continued to progress and eventually became worse. The country was left in disarray and the citizens were left traumatized, “January 1999, the country experienced an unprecedented orgy of violence, destruction, and untold human suffering. Close to 50,000 people were killed or maimed in the process” (240). At this point many of the citizens feared for their lives and fled the country. They went into neighboring countries such

The lieutenant explains,“If you do not want to fight or help, that is fine. But you will not have rations and will not stay in this village” (106). As well, if Beah tried to escape from being a soldier, he would actually be committing an illegal act. Under chapter 18, line 3f, In Sierra Leone’s constitution of 1991, it states, “Nothing contained in or done under authority of any law shall be held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of this section to the extent that the law in question makes provision for preventing the departure from Sierra Leone of a person who is reasonably suspected of having committed a crime or seeking to evade the fulfillment of an obligation imposed on him under the civil law or to evade military service”. Therefore, it would be illegal for Beah if he evaded military service to escape from the war.

The rebels of RUF effectively used violence to instill fear and obedience into the villagers of Sierra Leone. People of the village even turn on Ishmael and his friends throughout the book. Many of the villagers don't trust them and are afraid because they stayed together in a group walking through villages. Also, the violence intentionally created distrust amongst families. Boys turned their backs on their own fathers for the RUF.

The change in Sierra Leone culture is one of the first consequences of war seen in the story. Throughout the civil war the rebels (RUF) recruited or forced many children to become soldiers. In order to get these children they would raid villages and then draft the strongest ones. They would then tell the children that they would not need their families

No one wants their childhood to be utterly destroyed or have their family taken away from them in the blink of an eye, without the chance to even say one last goodbye. The odd chance of that happening to us, here in America, is slim to none. In Sierra Leone on the other hand, along with many other parts of Africa, child soldiers are being put to use in armies. In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, the recruitment of child soldiers, African living situations, and the psychological trauma endured by the children deals with the issue of child soldiers.

In the summer of 1985, I joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to the remote, landlocked country of Burkina Faso in West Africa. The stories contained in this work all have a basis in fact and are in general very much the way I remember things happening. That being said, “Agent 000” is completely fictitious, but even in this story, there is a dimension of reality, as it was commonplace for volunteers to be suspected of being CIA operatives.

Each individual is either directly or indirectly involved in the production of conflict minerals. For those directly involved in the production of conflict minerals, this includes enslaved children and the author of A Long Way Gone. As previously stated in the Child Soldiers PowerPoint, the conflict heightened in Sierra Leone on the account of these minerals (Dolhinow). The author of A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, survived the conflict and experienced the uneasiness of a soldier. Additionally, Baindu described her experience stating that the rebels “forced” the children “to work in diamond pits (George, 2009).” These narratives directly relate to the issue of conflict minerals and child soldiers. Citizens of several countries, including the

Wouldn’t everyone want to defend their country of attacks by rebel soldiers? A far too young boy has seen the world at its worst in Ishmael Beah’s autobiography, A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. Ishmael tells his tale when war hits Sierra Leone, and he becomes a killing machine, overcomes his mournful past, and rediscovers who he is. Literary themes used to show the violence include, the theme of hope, irony, and imagery.

On March 23rd, 1991, a civil war started between the Sierra Leonean Government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). This war had an enormous impact on everyone in and around the country, especially young civilian boys who were taken from their families and homes to become child soldiers. One of these former government soldiers is Ishmael Beah, who was brought into this battle between powers at only 13 years old. Throughout his lifetime, he has had to confront many challenges and conflicts, most of which can be found in his memoir, “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.” After reading his memoir, I have gained much knowledge on the topic of both the Sierra Leone Civil War and the issue of children becoming soldiers. The themes of this