Charles Otoo, a Ghanaian who lived in Sierra Leone with his family in his youthful days, has given a harrowing account of how he witnessed the Sierra Leone Civil War.
Narrating his ordeal on Adom FM’s morning show Dwaso Nsem on Tuesday, Mr. Otoo said images of the brutality and viciousness of the conflict are still lingering in his mind.
According to him, as a young man of about 19 years, he had to watch the forearms of children, youth, and even adults get amputated during the war.
“What I saw in Sierra Leone when my family moved there was very horrible. Sierra Leone was very quiet and everything was smooth till war broke out.
“When the war started, the kind of things that happened in front of me. People’s arms were cut either short or long and blood is given to them to drink for energy,” he said.
He said he could have died during the civil war but for God’s grace, he survived.
According to him, some of his friends were subjected to beatings and inhuman acts.
He noted that a lot of children were involved in rebel activities, and participated actively in the war.
Many others were affected because they were victims and even more lost their parents.
The civil war, he stressed, destroyed all the health infrastructure in the country.
“Many clinics that had been established by the government were completely demolished. Many people moved from the countryside into main cities and towns, which compounded the poor health and sanitation situation. It was extremely difficult to really get things moving at that time,” he said.
The civil war that ravaged Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002 destroyed the country’s infrastructure including its health systems.
