In the past few days I have seen a few unscrupulous individuals disseminating gruesome images of our violent civil war on social media in order to intimidate those who are taking to the streets to protest a recent government violation of our constitution. I urge those using such irresponsible fear-mongering to desist not only because the country cannot afford another war, but also in solemn respect for the memories of those who were killed, raped, tortured, and traumatized duri...

When the first bullet was fired at Bomaru on March 23, 1991, I had just gotten out of prison with my father and walked back to Sierra Leone from Liberia. We had been arrested by Charles Ganghay Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebels and incarcerated on the outskirts of Voinjama. I was only about eight or nine years old and as a child I had no idea why we were in jail. Years later I would come to learn that Ganghay Taylor was retaliating for Sierra Leone’...