Word: edgar
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Prior to the outbreak of civil war, Edgar lived what he describes as a “simplistic” and “idyllic” life; his father, an attorney, and his mother, a school teacher, had settled his family in a beautiful part of Freetown nestled between coastline to the west and mountains to the east. Although much of Sierra Leone had been in the grips of civil war since 1991, the Edgar family never felt particularly threatened because they were reassured that Freetown was “as safe as can be” because...
...civil war that spans over a decade and has outlived any number of broken peace accords and cease-fire treaties, it is often hard to recount what led up to the violence that Edgar and his family witnessed first-hand. The two major players in the nations’s civil war are the freely elected government, which is backed by the UN and a host of neighboring West African countries, and a band of militia rebels who, among other things, want to control Sierra Leone’s profitable diamond mines. The rebels call themselves the Revolutionary United Front...
...some errands, he had an exam the following week to prepare for, and he was also planning to go down to the beach with his brother, Victor, later in the day. As the rebels hiding in the hills and stalking the streets continued to fire shots, Edgar stayed with his family inside their house and his thoughts took on a darker dimension. He recalled the many stories he had heard about what the rebels had done in the countryside to innocent civilians, including “murder, rape and mutilation.” With the violence right outside his door...
Huddled in their house in Freetown, Edgar and his family were utterly powerless. They had no idea what the mercenaries meant to do or how long the shooting would last. They waited in their house all day and all night until it seemed safe to venture outside again. “All you could hear were bombs and all you could see was smoke,” says Edgar. The nightmare took an even more frightening turn when Edgar looked out the window to see the President of Sierra Leone’s helicopter over head. Though there were competing...
...next few days, Edgar and his family kept themselves prisoners in their own house, as they heard rebels outside with rifles and trucks looting deserted houses and stealing cars. Luckily, they “never came to our home,” but the eminent threat of danger meant that Edgar and his family found it difficult to eat, sleep or carry on with their routine daily lives. “My mom tried to get my brother and I to play computer games to take our mind off it”, Edgar explains, “but we just...