Charles Otoo, a Ghanaian who lived in Sierra Leone with his family in his youthful days, has given a harrowing account of what he witnessed during the Sierra Leonean Civil War.
Narrating his ordeal on Adom FM’s morning show, Dwaso Nsem, Tuesday, Mr Otoo said images of the brutality and viciousness of the conflict still linger in his mind.
According to him, as a young man of about 19 years, he saw children, youth and even adults being 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 until the war broke out.
“When the war started, the kind of things that happened in front of me: people’s arms were cut at either the wrist (short sleeve) or at the elbow (long sleeve) as some are given blood to drink for energy,” he said.
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Otoo said he could have died during the war but for God’s grace, adding that some of his friends were subjected to all kinds of torture and other inhuman acts.
He told the story of how children were involved in rebel activities and participated actively in the war.
Many other children, he said, were affected because they became victims through the loss of 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.
Watch video below for more of Otoo’s story: