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Some 136 children on whose faces and bodies rebels carved their groups’ acronyms during Sierra Leone’s 10-year civil war are to have them removed by two visiting plastic surgeons from the International Medical Corps.
“The first surgeon is due to arrive in mid-July,” a UNICEF official told IRIN.
The official said that US $150,000 had so far been budgeted for operations expected to last three months, “depending on the caseload”. The funds and time required could increase because more children could register for surgery when word circulated about the operations.
Of those so far registered, the official said, 95 percent have been branded with the letters RUF or AFRC, the acronyms of the Revolutionary United Front and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which ruled Sierra Leone briefly but brutally in 1997-1998.
The children also carry psychological scars. The UNICEF official said many hid their markings while playing at school. “Some tried to hide the scars and others tried to remove them with caustic soda,” the official said.
Others refuse to return to their parents because of the stigma of association with the RUF and AFRC.
Most of the children were forced to join the rebel groups and commit atrocities, sometimes against their parents.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
