Boys and Girls Who Also Carried Guns
by Sanam Anderlini and Dyan Mazurana, International Herald Tribune op-ed
March 12, 2024

Forgotten in the peace

BOSTON—After 14 years of brutal civil war, Liberia's guns are finally quiet. Just weeks ago, international donors pledged $520 million for reconstruction. The bulk of the money will probably be spent on dismantling fighting units, confiscating weapons and helping rebels and soldiers return home. As in neighboring Sierra Leone, thousands of child soldiers will need care. The international community's treatment of these young fighters will determine the program's success - or failure.

The United Nations and the World Bank are touting Sierra Leone as an international model. They have much to be proud of: They set up over 70 centers around the West African country, encouraging fighters to disarm. While officials initially estimated that there were 48,000 fighters, close to 75,000 came forward.

But the bulk of the child soldiers never took part. That oversight was due in part to outdated assumptions by well-intentioned officials on the ground: that the forces were made up predominantly of adult men, that if children were involved they were only a small number, and that girls were not fighters - they were sex slaves or supporters. In fact an estimated 50 percent of Sierra Leone's fighters were children, but less than 10 percent entered official programs. Recent studies, by Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace and Rights and Democracy, show that females made up to 30 percent of the forces. Yet of an estimated 12,000 girls, only about 500 received disarmament benefits.

In the field, the pressure is to disband and disarm as many people as possible in the shortest time. It is easier to assume that men pose the greatest threat, and that women and children are less important.

But in Sierra Leone, many of the girls abducted by rebel and pro-government forces were frontline fighters, spies and commanders. Some managed camps and planned raids; others were cooks, medics and diamond looters. They were an essential labor pool; armies couldn't have functioned without them. Yet after the war, they were seen as commanders' "wives" and camp followers, given no benefits or support, and left to fend for themselves.

The question is whether disarmament programs should be just a quick fix to disband rebels, or whether they should focus on long-term development. Despite a promising start in Sierra Leone, literacy and vocational courses for up to 7,000 child soldiers were suspended after funds were depleted. Given that Liberia's transitional government has earmarked donor funds for a two-year period, there is no reason to believe that its benefits program will be anything other than short term.

That's the crux of the problem. Without an education, a job or a place to live, these fighters have a bleak future. Invariably, many pick up arms again, cross borders and join rebel forces in neighboring countries, perpetuating violence.

Instead of regarding Sierra Leone as a model, experts should examine the hard lessons learned. First, the assumption that women and girls played no role in either the execution of war or the building of peace is inaccurate. Second, the exclusion of former girl fighters - and their children - from postwar programs left many vulnerable to poverty, crime, prostitution and HIV/AIDS. Third, although local community organizations - primarily led by women - are providing critical support for former combatants, they're barely funded.

In Sierra Leone, women in villages and towns across the country opened their homes to these children. Even women who watched their families destroyed at the hands of coerced or drugged child fighters have been willing to set aside their own suffering and help.

Says one widow, "If left abandoned, the child ex-combatants would have nothing positive to do and would prove a threat to a fragile peace." If these women fail, violence returns to their doorsteps. Supporting them is not only cost effective; it is a key to ensuring stability and security in countries torn apart by war.

If our goal in Liberia is long-term peace, we can either follow flawed programs of the past, or we can acknowledge our mistakes and correct them by distributing benefits to all the fighting forces, including girls and boys; developing long-term strategies for economic recovery, job growth and universal education; and supporting community and women's groups.

If not, we're simply sowing the seeds for a recurrence of violence by a new generation of exploited and dissatisfied youth.

Sanam Anderlini is with Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace. Dyan Mazurana is with the Feinstein International Famine Center, Tufts University.

Copyright © 2003 The International Herald Tribune

return to top