Sierra Leone has suffered terrible social and economic costs as a result of its civil war and fight over diamond control. Under the cover of warfare the rebels committed heinous crimes against humanity in the form of murder, rape, and mutilation. The war between 1991 and 1999 claimed over 75,000 lives, caused 500,000 Sierra Leoneans to become refugees, and displaced half of the countries 4.5 million people [6]. Also during this period, the Sierra Leone economy was being cheated out of millions of dollars in the form of illegal diamonds.
Rape of women and girls was widespread and systematic during Sierra Leone's conflict through most of the 1990s, and is reportedly continuing on a smaller scale in areas still controlled by rebels in the north and east of the country. Members of the RUF primarily perpetrated this brutal tactic as a tool of war to terrorize the civilian population into submission and break-apart families and communities. In addition, to the thousands of women who were raped, thousands more women and girls were abducted and taken into the bush to travel with the rebels and to act as domestic sex slaves to the fighters. . In many cases the abducted were gang raped, beaten, starved, tortured, forced to walk long distances carrying heavy loads, and told they would be killed if they tried to escape.
The rebels have been reluctant to turn over children in spite of their obligation to do so under the Lome Peace Accord and have been particularly slow to hand over girls. Girls and young women who managed to escape from the rebels or who were released, suffer a variety of consequences such as sexually transmitted infections. These include HIV/AIDS, trauma and post traumatic stress disorder, extreme anxiety and alienation by their communities and families. Numerous women also were left with scarring and serious gynecological problems, such as damaged uteruses and bladders. A high percentage of the survivors are pregnant or are now single mothers of so-called "rebel babies."
The Rebels also terrorize citizens with the systemic mutilation of men, women, and children. The rebels had teams dedicated to capturing citizens and mutating them. Often times they cut off both the victims’ hands and put the hands in a rice bag and took it back to their commanders. Such behavior is not an isolated event or the product of undisciplined soldiers, it is the rebels gruesome strategy and can be traced back to the leaders of the RUF. As a result of these acts, the thousands of surviving amputees in Sierra Leone were forced in to refugee camps. Many of these people are illiterate and support themselves by farming the land, and they are left futureless as a result of their needless amputations.
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