Sierra Leone's special war tribunal, which is backed by the United Nations, has found three former military leaders guilty on 11 counts of war crimes during the 1991-2002 civil war. The verdicts on Wednesday were the first delivered by the Sierra Leone court in prosecutions arising from the conflict.

Three former leaders of Sierra Leone’s former Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) have each been found guilty on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The judgments were read out in court by Justice Julia Sebutinde, the Presiding Judge of Trial Chamber II, in proceedings which lasted just over two hours.

A new website, has been launched to provide news and expert analysis—¬updated daily—on the war crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Ghankay Taylor. The website will feature daily updates from the courtroom, as well as analysis, background information, the trial calendar and other resources. The site is a joint project of the Open Society Institute, the Open Society Justice Initiative, and the International Senior Lawyers Project.

The number of UNHCR-assisted returns to Liberia passed the 100,000 mark on Tuesday with the arrival of a convoy carrying scores of returnees from neighbouring Sierra Leone. The landmark convoy bearing more than 250 returning refugees entered Liberia at the Bo Waterside border crossing. Government officials, UNHCR representatives and humanitarian workers attended a welcoming ceremony at the nearby Sinje transit centre.

With tens of thousands of youths still out of work more than five years after the end of Sierra Leone’s civil war, many say that prospects for employment will be what they demand of the new leaders they are to elect in July.

More than five years since the war officially ended, the bigger problem in Sierra Leone's health is the lack of resources and leadership to combat the multiple scourges of diseases ravaging the country's poor and sick from very preventable causes.

The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals for poverty eradication aim to halve the number of people without access to safe water and sanitation by 2015. Safe drinking water remains a mirage for the vast majority in poverty-stricken Sierra Leone, and there has been scant public discussion of the possible solutions. Bai-Bai Sesay reports for PANOS.

I am not a psychologist, nor doctor. However, the pain of the amputees and their struggles are unimaginable to me... I simply cannot even begin to understand how difficult their lives must be.

I watched a movie recently, here in the US, about a gentleman in Ghana who, with the gift of a bicycle began a campaign to regain dignity and acceptance for the disabled in his country. He insisted, directly, to these folks to beg no more, but find their abilities and sell their work. Very inspiring, no-excuse approach from another differently-abled person. He, eventually, had gone from living life on crutches with one proper leg, to cycling across his country with a donated bike to show those around him that they can persevere... with one functioning leg.

Through sponsorship of doctors and former atheletes, he was given a prosthetic leg, and shortly after, ran an Ironman triathalon in the US alongside another young man who had two prosthetic legs. Yet he was an extremely functional and inspired young man before even having the new leg! He began his successes with one leg and a bike. Of course, the emotional and post-traumatic psychological hurdles are different for the amputees of Sierra Leone's war.

They have been attacked, mutilated unjustly by some of their own countrymen in a small country. But I believe in the perseverance of the Sierra Leonian spirit! Another reference: When I was a new mother and had psychological needs, I was treated by a young lady by the name of Dr. Gina Patterson. She had no arms below her elbows, and only one natural leg to her knee. Everything else was prosthetic and braces. She was truly quadrapalegic.

But... I have never seen a more charitable, compassionate person! Though I was immediately self-conscientious of my petty problems compared to her inspiring capabilities, she was quick to make me feel that it was okay to be a human with problems that are average that sometimes get the best of us, and she was loving, and supportive in helping me find hope that I had lost... never once being a handicapped lady trying to console a confused person. She was "a rock" and an uplifter!

I would sit in her office in amazement as she handled all of her papers, and WROTE in BEAUTIFUL penmanship with the arms that had no elbows. There is so much hope with an uplifted spirit! I will try to contact her... she was married after my time with her... intending to be a mom! But her name is changed and I have to do some digging to find her. She may be a wonderful resource/inspiration to any interested in the wonders of how she is so much more successful, capable, and compassionate than the average AMerican... with two upper arms, and a thigh, then science's best attempts at replications of legs...

Encouragement, acceptance, and more than anything... UPLIFTING is what the amputees need most. And a shoulder ... a rock ... to lean on. But to also uplift them, and let them know that a great life can lay before them as soon as they choose to believe in it! Much love and blessings to the great country and amazing strong spirited folks of Sierra Leone!

The war in Sierra Leone has been over for five years. However for thousands of amputees 'their personal battles with trauma have exponentially and vicariously intensified as the years have passed'. The amputees’ experiences and nightmares are more emotional and psychological than physical.

The decade long harrowing civil war endured by Sierra Leone might be over as far as the Sierra Leone government and top United Nations emissary Carolyn McAskie responsible for peace-building are concerned. The latter states: 'The war has been over for five years the peace has held, I think that’s a gold standard...there is still a lot to do though.'

President Ahmed Tejan Kabba has publicly told the nation his government is overwhelmed by national priorities. He is therefore unable to address the individual needs of his people therefore they must begin to help themselves.

However for the thousands of amputees living in this tiny nation barely the size of Maine this is an impractical and impossible task. Their personal battles with trauma have exponentially and vicariously intensified as the years have passed. The amputees’ experiences are more emotional and psychological. They suffer a nightmare than their physical wounds can communicate.

Presently, the government is busy with its pending presidential and parliamentary elections just a few months away, and the routine of running the machinery of government.

However these elections are not going to be curative for the thousands of Mamsu Thoronkas and Tamba Ngaujahs that are still languishing in the mundane and elusive wilderness of Sierra Leone, plagued and handicapped in destitution and despondency. They cannot fend for themselves in a country where unemployment is astronomical and finding a job and a home are extremely difficult.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/297/40501_1.jpgThe disturbing and graphic poster images of mutilation and amputation germinated from the seeds of the 1991 civil war that were sown in the eastern border town of Bormaru.

Sierra Leone shares close proximity and commonality with neighbouring Liberia. There, the demonic and diabolic foetus of dehumanisation and shocking brutality were born. Although the rebels, who migrated to Liberia to execute heinous crimes with the aid of Charles Taylor of Liberia, were discounted by the government as mere rabble rousers.

But facts have proved quite the opposite as warnings of possible violence were ignored. Although the Government assured the nation that the dire situation was under control the truth was that innocent and peaceful Sierra Leonean civilians would encounter a bizarre and innovative barbarism seasoned with surgical nightmares.

The psychology behind the amputation of limbs, tongues or ears is a terror wedging campaign to instil phobia and panic on the government and all its citizens. In a previous election the people had voted overwhelmingly for President Kabba. Since they used their hands to vote, dismembering their limbs would prevent them from casting another ballot for a democratic government. Rebel propaganda of fear and panic was to impose their will on the people of Sierra Leone, just like terrorists across the world.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/297/40501_2.jpgMamsu Thoronka - 41 year-old trader, shown in the pictures is among thousands of amputees living in Freetown, Sierra Leone today. She is struggling to support her family of six children on her own. Her husband is in a transition into another relationship and is distant from the family. Welfare services do not exist and no form of help comes from the government:

'On 22 January, 1999 when the capital city Freetown was attacked by rebels, I attempted to take refuge in a building to escape the vengeance of the rebels. But they found me, and put my hand on a table and ready to cut it off with a machete like a butcher would sever animal meat. I begged for mercy asking them to respect God and me being His child.

They told me to point to God with my right hand which they also tried to chop off. They tried three times but failed, the hand of God probably helped or saved me. I still can’t use three fingers on my right hand. The rebels said, “I should get another hand from President Kabba, who has several hands to spare.” I was in agony and the thought of death crossed my mind. I was later taken to hospital but the doctors too had fled for their lives. Freetown was infested with hundreds of corpses scattered all around its perimeter. My dangling left hand held by a film of skin had begun to decay. It took a week before I was able to see a doctor who treated only my wounds.

My husband is still distant, I’m sure he has another wife without my knowledge. I persevere to support my children by buying produce like palm-oil in the countryside to resell in Freetown. My responsibility is too much for me. I cannot afford to pay school fees for my six children, as school fees are beyond my reach. I’m appealing for help from the international community, as my two oldest children have dropped out of school.'

But with her resilience and tenacious spirit Mamsu refuses to give up her fight for survival or self sufficiency. She continues cross border trade between Guinea and Sierra Leone. In Guinea goods are cheaper. But a recent embargo put on Guinean goods could paralyse her main source of livelihood. She still sells vegetables and beans to enable her to buy clothes and household necessities for her large family. Goods and services are now being sold at cut throat prices upcountry than in Freetown. She rears a few chickens for subsistence and sometimes sells some.

'Rebels have threatened to end our lives. They say, if government will not stop talking about amputees and the rebel atrocities that created them, they will get rid of us all. I fear the advent of another war.'

For Mamsu the welfare of her children is paramount in her mind. She is not seeking vengeance or retribution towards her assailants (rebels). She has offered forgiveness to them, despite the institution of the War Crimes Court in Sierra Leone to help bring justice to people like Mamsu. 'I want someone to take care of my children', she prays.

'The former rebel fighters are being well looked after with skills training and free education for their children. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission said, we amputees should get a pension but we have seen nothing.'

A Norwegian charity that helped house her. There is discrimination against amputees at all levels. 'I cannot cook for myself; I have to direct my daughter Bonki to do the cooking for me. When my children run into disagreement in school their peers tell them, “Your mother is a half-person.” It is so demeaning and painful for me since I’m a victim of mere circumstance. We amputees are really discriminated against in Sierra Leone.'

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/297/40501_3.jpgTamba Ngaujah has a similar story to tell the world about his destitution and abandonment by the society that he once served. He had enlisted in the Republic of Sierra Leone Military Forces (RSLMF) to defend his country against all internal and external aggressions, serving his country diligently and honestly to the best of his ability.

While other soldiers deserted from the army, he stayed on to defend his country and people. It was during his line of duty that he was captured by the rebels, at the beginning of the war in 1991. Tamba suffered double amputation in captivity, becoming the first among thousands of amputees. After surviving his ordeal he was kicked out of the Wilberforce barracks where he lived in the military quarters during the heavy rainy season when massive flooding is common. His condition did not prevent the military officials from evicting him from his living quarters.

He is now homeless languishing on the streets with his family parading as beggars. No plans have been made to provide him with alternative accommodation. He is appealing to the international community at least to provide him with shelter considering his current status. Help for amputees is a deplorable and pathetic situation and in fact does not seem to be moving at all.

Despite the numerous NGOs in the country, aid is slow to reach the amputees. Even the Human Rights Declaration and The Truth and Reconciliation testament does not seem applicable to them, although a recent UN assessment gives the country high marks for keeping the peace.

What we do to the least of those among us, we have done it to our creator. How long will this peace last that is held by a thread? A nation that does not take care of its disabled or less fortunate subjects is doomed.

A comprehensive reading of the Sierra Leone civil war and its effects on ordinary people can be found in my book: Harvest of Hate- Stories and Essays: “Fuel for the Soul” - published by Publish America 2006. Visit: to read an extract - Harvest of Hate- Mary’s Saga.

*Roland Bankole Marke is a Sierra Leonean writer living and writing in Florida, USA. He is the author of three books: Teardrops Keep Falling, Silver Rain and Blizzard and Harvest of Hate; Stories and Essays – “Fuel for the Soul.” His work has appeared in several publications including World Press.org and Free Press.org. Reach him at [email][email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists, with assistance from the United Nations, the National Election Commission of Sierra Leone and other civil society groups has agreed on a media code of conduct to guide the electoral campaign leading to presidential and parliamentary elections set for this July.

WOMEN OF SIERRA LEONE - IT'S YOUR PARLIAMENT TOO!!!
Workshops to Get More Women Successfully Involved in the July 2007 Elections
Theme: 'Women and Men in partnership in Sierra Leone - the politics of the
future.'
Venue: British Council Freetown Sierra Leone
Date: Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 March 2007
For further information: [email][email protected] or 50/50 Group Email: [email][email protected]

Founder and erstwhile president of the gender advocacy group 50-50, said Friday (12 January 2007) that the manifestos of political parties in Sierra Leone are not gender friendly.

The International Rescue Committee currently seeks a Program Coordinator for its Sierra Leone program, based in Freetown with frequent travel to the field, Freetown including the Kenema, Kailahun and Kono field sites.

Benson Lahai, the principal development officer in the ministry of development and economic planning, has been exposed in a corruption deal. He is alleged to be duping people who want to register their Non- Governmental Organisations.

Denial and ignorance of HIV/AIDS are still major problems in post-war Sierra Leone, hindering care and support for people living with the virus."When I tested positive in 2002 and told my family, they'd never heard of HIV/AIDS; they didn't know it existed and they didn't want me in the house, so I had to leave," HIV-positive Ibrahim Kargbo, 41, told IRIN/PlusNews in the capital, Freetown.

Teachers all over the country will celebrate World Teachers Day Wednesday (October 5). Mohamed Swaray, a senior teacher at the Prince of Wales Secondary School Tuesday said his challenges, as a teacher is to ensure that the pupils should understand what he is teaching.

The Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration programme started in Sierra Leone in 1998. Among others, its objectives were to collect, register, disable and destroy all conventional weapons and munitions retrieved from combatants. But Lansana Gberie argues that DDR processes are “expensive, time-consuming, and often irritating. It challenges one’s sensibilities, for example, to come to terms with the idea that fighters who have been guilty of gross atrocities will be compensated and helped to resettle and reintegrate into society, while the millions of their victims, whose lives had been battered by the combatants, will remain derelict. “

The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fighter was probably no more than sixteen, but he was already well-practiced in the front’s affecting sententiousness. “What we want,” he said, his voice sounding like some old recording, “is peace that does not leave us in pieces.” I was talking to him in the diamond-rich district of Kono, eastern Sierra Leone, in 2001. The disarmament process, thrown into chaos after the RUF abducted 500 peacekeepers in May 2000, had picked up again, and a large contingent of heavily-armed Pakistani troops were camped a couple of miles to the other side of the ravaged district. Many of the RUF fighters, some still with weapons, were digging for diamonds. Fatorma – for that was the RUF fighter’s name – said that his gun, an old AK 47, was all that he had in the world. It was a life and death matter for him. Without it he feared he would be killed. “This is what makes me a man,” he said. “Why should they ask me to give it up? It will be end of our Revolution.”

Fatorma was right. The RUF, which was almost entirely without political support, surviving only because it was armed, would cease to exist once its weapons were taken away. The UN, which was funding the process, did not seem very aware of this. They had also put in place an elaborate political programme which would allow the rebels to participate in elections that were to be held the following year, 2002. The psychology of the armed in an atmosphere of lawlessness has been commented on by many, but to face someone like Fatorma – very young, rootless, without any other skills, in an environment degraded by warfare in which he was a prime participant – is to add a new, totally frightening, meaning to the phenomenon. With their weapons – small, cheap, easy-to-hide guns – they have a feeling of real power and a stake in what goes on around them; and they can be highly destructive, especially when drugged (as is often the case). Without them they feel alienated and hopeless, but far less dangerous to overall society. It is the reason why the UN has made disarming of militias and their encampment and reintegration into the wider society a cardinal part of any process of transition from war to peace in every war-affected country that the organization has been involved with.

“A successful DDR/RRR process,” concludes the National Programme for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reinsertion, a 2004 document produced jointly by the Ivorian government and the UN mission in the country, ONUCI, “makes the difference between peace and a return to war.” Put so starkly, the question whether DDR (Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration) is a requirement for peace looks like a no-brainer. Can there be any question about the need for disarming combatants and having them completely demobilized and reintegrated, as civilians or into the professional military, in any transition from civil war to peace programme? In fact, DDR programmes have been such a core aspect of peace missions in the recent past that peace operations have become almost unthinkable without them.

It has not always been like that, however. The problem of dealing with unwanted combatants, or ex-combatants, is as old as warfare itself. The current policy of DDR is a distinctively UN strategy; its humanitarian provenance cannot be doubted. This, as we have noted, has not always been the case. As Marx noted, when Julius Caesar, the great Roman general, wanted to demobilize some unwanted Gallic soldiers who had, at various times, caused him serious problems, he had the right hand of hundreds of them cut off. This was not recreational cruelty in the manner of some of the neurotic indulgences of Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF); it was deadly rational business. The soldiers, if not put out of business, could have posed a grave danger to Caesar’s emerging dominion, and Caesar had no time for a protracted programme of a more humane nature – these were cruel and turbulent times. Napoleon, the French revolutionary leader and a child of the Enlightenment, would have found Caesar’s tactic too barbaric. So, as soon as he was sure of his own imperial ambitions, he had thousands of his own soldiers, suspected of Republicanism, shipped to Haiti, there to be killed by the revolutionary forces of Toussaint L’Overture and the plague.

The UN-monitored programmes of disarming and demobilising West African civil war combatants have involved essentially the same logic: most combatants in such wars were hastily recruited, sometimes forcefully, and although they always get coarsened by warfare, normal life for many of them can really only be found outside of the armed forces. Conventional militaries in any case cannot absorb many of the ex-combatants, who, increasingly, are children anyway.

Sierra Leone’s war began in March 1991 when a former army corporal and photographer, Foday Saybanah Sankoh, invaded the country from Liberia with a small band of Sierra Leonean dissidents and mercenaries from Liberia and Burkina Faso. In a very short time, the war engulfed the country with a destructive force. The war led to a complete normative collapse. It directly triggered three military coups - one in 1992, the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) coup led by Captain Valentine Strasser; another in 1996, a palace coup that led to Strasser's replacement by his deputy Brigadier Maada Bio; and the most destructive, in 1997, a bloody putsch that temporarily terminated the democratically elected government of Tejan Kabbah. By the end of 1996, upwards of 15,000 people had been killed and almost two-thirds of the country's population of 4.5 million displaced.

The economy collapsed, with a negative annual growth rate of minus 6.24 per cent between 1991 and 1995. By March 1996, an estimated 75 per cent of school-aged children were out of school, and 70 per cent of the country's educational facilities, already troubled by the time war started, were destroyed. Only 16 per cent of the country's health facilities were functioning by March 1996, and almost all of these were in the as yet untouched capital (untouched by war, that is). By the end of 1999, the casualty figure had risen, by most estimates, to upwards of 70,000, and Freetown had itself been partly destroyed in a devastating attack by the rebels and rogue government soldiers in January 1999. Thousands of civilians, including young babies, had their hands crudely amputated by the rebels in a campaign of insane terror.

Understanding why disarmament is so important in such a situation requires a mere examination of how difficult the whole process was. In May 2000, months into the process, the UN announced that it had disarmed 24,042 militia combatants, but that these combatants had turned in only 10,840 weapons. That same month, a RUF commander invaded one of the disarmament camps on grounds that the UN had disarmed some RUF combatants without first clearing it with him. He had some UN soldiers and military observers tied up, beaten and detained. That RUF commander is now in the custody of the UN-Sierra Leone Special Court, charged with crimes against humanity. It was a week after this incident that the RUF captured the 500 UN troops (of the Zambian contingent), precipitating one of the biggest crises in the UN’s peacekeeping history.

At the end of Sierra Leone’s disarmament process, about 70,000 combatants were disarmed and demobilized. They were mainly Revolutionary United Front guerrillas and their main nemesis, members of the Civil Defence Force (CDF). An interesting report on the aftermaths of the DDR process, entitled What the Fighters Say: A Survey of Ex-Combatants in Sierra Leone June-August 2003, makes a number of important comments on the motivations of the combatants in the two groups. The survey took place over a year after the disarmament process, and since it relies on the expressed views of the ex-combatants to draw its conclusions, these comments should be regarded with healthy skepticism. The report argues that “Overall, the data support the view that the fighters in the conflict were largely underprivileged individuals who had been failed by the Sierra Leonean state.” It states:

Over one-quarter of fighters came from households in which the father had passed away before the war; fully one third had lost at least one parent by the time the war started; and almost 10% had lost both parents at the start of the fighting…

Moreover, nearly 60% had been displaced from their homes before they joined a faction. These figures are much higher for the CDF – where more than three-quarters of the combatants had been forced from their homes [by RUF attacks] before they decided to join. Particularly for the CDF, the uprooting of their lives caused by the war was an important part of their story of participation.

The report argues that:

Across factions, both political and material motivations mattered for the recruitment of fighters. RUF combatants claimed that they fought to express dissatisfaction, to root out corruption, and to bring down the existing regime. CDF fighters argued that they aimed to defend their communities from the violence brought by the war. Political motivations notwithstanding, there were strong material incentives as well. RUF combatants were promised jobs, money, and women; during the war, they received women, drugs, and sometimes more valuable goods. [My emphasis] The CDF helped to meet the basic needs of the members and provided increased security for their families.

The issue of political motivation with respect to the RUF – that business of fighting to “root out corruption” – is seriously undermined by the fact that, as the report notes, “87% of RUF combatants reported being abducted [and forcefully inducted] into the faction and only 9% suggest they joined because they supported the group’s political goals.” On the other hand, the CDF, which was aggressively pro-government, had “62% of [its] combatants [reporting that they joined] because they supported the group’s political goals,” with only 2% suggesting they were “forcibly recruited.” The rest said they participated because they were “scared of what would happen if they did not join or to take revenge on the RUF.” There are other interesting set of statistics. With respect to corruption and governance, “more than half” of the ex-combatants “believe things are about the same or worse than before the war.” But “while members of different factions have found distinct ways of reintegrating, they tend to share a largely positive assessment of the progress made by the government in addressing fundamental economic and political challenges in the country,” with fully “83% of the respondents” [the survey interviewed 1000 ex-combatants] believing that “access to education is better now than it was before the war,” and 65 % believing that “access to medical care has substantially improved.”

How can one make sense of the apparent cognitive dissonance in these views? It probably reflects a profound issue at the heart of the war: most of the combatants, particularly those in the RUF, can hardly be expected to have a good idea of conditions before the war, because they were mainly children when they were recruited to fight. Now a good number of them are grown-up and are now facing the usual challenges of eking out a legitimate living in an impoverished country with few opportunities. What to do?

Francis Kai-Kai, who managed Sierra Leone’s DDR programme, recently told me that his National Committee on the DDR got the ex-combatants quickly through the Disarmament and Demobilisation phase – which included some technical training and a little cash support – and then had them integrated within the general ambience of poverty. “We didn’t want them to feel privileged for a long time,” he said, “that would pose problems in the future.” Now the Sierra Leone government is working on a Poverty Alleviation Scheme, with World Bank support, and with Kai-Kai as one of the key players. The success of this scheme would lead to a more general improvement in the living standards in the country, from which the ex-combatants will presumably benefit. It remains to be seen how this will play out. The reintegration aspect, in other words, is ongoing.

DDR processes are expensive, time-consuming, and often irritating. It challenges one’s sensibilities, for example, to come to terms with the idea that fighters who have been guilty of gross atrocities will be compensated and helped to resettle and reintegrate into society, while millions of their victims, whose lives have been battered by the combatants, will remain derelict. Patient work, however, can pay off. One of the more creative steps taken by the UN and the Sierra Leone government was the Community Arms collection initiative. Officials decided to go beyond the combatants and ex-combatants, and target various communities in Sierra Leone in an effort to induce ordinary people to give up deadly weapons. The initiative was so successful that since the war ended there have been fewer incidents of violent crime in Sierra Leone than even before the war started – which is to say, crime is very low in the country.

At the end of the disarmament process in Sierra Leone, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan issued a statement welcoming the development. The statement noted that it was time for “the extension of State authority throughout the country, the restoration of ex-combatants, the restoration of the Government’s control over natural resources, and the resettlement of returning refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as forging national reconciliation, remain crucial tasks for the peace process which also requires generous support from the international community.” The very difficult and less dramatic task of governance and economic development, in other words, would now start. That task, like the reintegration process, is still ongoing; Sierra Leone’s future stability will depend on it. The jury is out on the whole process.

• Lansana Gberie, the author of “A Dirty War in West Africa”, is a Sierra Leonean researcher and journalist.
• Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Dramatic atrocities, extreme human suffering and the cruelties and psychosis of dirt poverty and slum life make for memorable documentaries, and the Sierra Leone civil war (1991-2002) combined all of these in excess. Man Den Nor Glady'O, a 57-minute documentary produced by charmingly named Rice N Peas, an alternative London-based production company, is the latest to relentlessly focus on these vulgar aspects of the country's recent and current condition.

Amnesty International launched a campaign to highlight the problems faced by women in Sierra Leone in accessing the justice system. Every day, women in rural Sierra Leone face discrimination and violence at the hands of the men in their homes and communities. When they try to access justice to address such abuses, they are often faced with further abuse and violence - often as a result of local chiefs exceeding their legal authority and imposing punishments against women based on customary law.

The Center for Victims of Torture is seeking a Country Director to oversee a psychosocial mental health project in Sierra Leone for individuals who have suffered torture and war trauma. The position has a one-year, renewable agreement.