The war began in 1991, when the RUF desired to overthrow the government and gain control of the diamond mines, a major source of revenue for the country.
[2] The SBU in Sierra Leone was made up of over 10,000 children, mostly between the ages of 8 and 10, who were notorious for their particularly cruel crimes against civilian populations, including human mutilation and torture.
He allowed the RUF to use Liberia as a route for resupplying resources and was thought to directly control militant operations in Sierra Leone.
The Special Court for Sierra Leone has been established to address the human rights violations that occurred and, as of 2010, they are still conducting trials of those accused to be leaders in the war.
While conditions have improved in Sierra Leone following the end of the war, children in 2010 are still in a compromising situation, with an estimated 250,000 refugees and 600,000 internally displaced people.
[7] RUF leader Foday Sankoh was trained in Libya at the secret military academy, World Revolutionary Headquarters.
Children were considered ideal candidates by the SBU, as they were seen as "easily malleable and in times of conflict, additional factors can contribute to their recruitment as soldiers including poverty, education and employment, family and friends, politics and ideology, and culture and tradition.
After this step, the child soldier was free to cut anything else, including lips, nose and removing internal organs and making the victim eat them.
One child soldier remembers how they poured petrol over the mother, father, two brothers and sister and set fire to them, watching as they ran around, burning alive before her capture.
[9] Many children who have been child soldiers "report psycho-social disturbances — from nightmares and angry aggression that is difficult to control to strongly anti-social behavior.
[11] Prior to the war, in 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the UN General Assembly that developed law and policy directed specifically at children.
In 1998, during the final years of the war, the UN established the United Nations Observer Missions in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) "to monitor the military and security situation, as well as facilitate the disarmament and demobilization of former combatants.