Children and war. During Sierra Leone's ten-year civil war, armed factions used thousands of children as soldiers.
A Red Cross programme has been reintegrating former fighters for three years. But can young ex-combatants ever really go home? Sisqo(1), a slim 16-year-old, is consulting Red Cross workers about trouble at school. He wants his teacher to stop taunting him by calling him a rebel. In the past Sisqo would have sorted the problem out with jungle justice — the brutality he learned when he was indeed a rebel fighting against Sierra Leone's government.
War Affects Children's Mental Health. Kid's tv. IN HORRIFIED FACES of children cowering in a bomb shelter in Mostar or Vitez or Ilidza during one of the regular attacks carried out on these towns, the destruction and insensitivity of war seems irrational to Moslems, Croats or Serbians.
Despite this heart-piercing picture of horror, however, it is likely that some of the same people who are staring at the horrified faces of their children will soon be entering the battlefield, voluntarily or involuntarily, to contribute to the horror. Sometimes the pressure of this realisation has been so great for not only the recruits, but also for their parents and partners that some have committed suicide. Most accounts of the war have attempted to portray the military competition with the civilians on the sidelines. But while the majority of civilians are not direct participants, many are direct victims. In fact, the overwhelming majority of victims are civilians.