July 21, 2006—In a large meeting room in a building in Western Freetown in Sierra Leone, Kadiatu Fofanah sits in her wheelchair, explaining why she has no legs.
“They attacked me in 1999,” she says. “And they cut off both my legs.”
A mother of nine children, Fofanah is a victim of Sierra Leone’s long conflict – the war which started in 1991 and ended in 2002.
All around Fofanah are amputees. There are many men, women and children in the room, all bearing the terrible legacy of Sierra Leone’s long conflict. It is believed thousands of civilians had their limbs hacked off by the rebel Revolutionary United Front during its campaign against the government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
Near Fofanah, there is a child whose hands are maimed and whose left leg ends at the knee. Another woman sits next to Fofanah – she only has one leg left to rest on the ground.
Amid the wheelchairs and crutches, sit a group of men in a line. They are all missing their hands. The meeting room is in an amputee settlement in Hastings, Western Freetown – one of more than 30 such settlements in the country.Â
“Good evening brothers and sisters,” says a voice over the microphone. Everyone responds. Then they are introduced to World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz. They are described as a group of people who, more than any others, have been most severely affected by the long conflict.Â
It’s Wolfowitz’s first day in Sierra Leone. And, as he walks around the room, meeting people they tell him their stories.
Amputee Mustapha Koroma, aged 60, listens attentively as his colleague makes a case to World Bank President Wolfowitz on behalf of the Sierra Leone amputees.
Bai Kamara stands tall. His left arm, which ends at the elbow, is clearly visible as he tells of being used as a human shield by rebels during the conflict.
Nearby Christopher Johnson sits in a wheelchair.
“I was shot. I was shot four times. I sustained four gun shots and that left me paralyzed,” says Johnson. “The gunshot that rendered me passed through my spinal cord and that’s why I’m paralyzed now. “
“I’ve been sitting in a wheelchair since 1999, when the rebellion hit Freetown.
“It was on the 23rd of January 1999, when one of the rebels just went into a house and said all of you should get out, just like that. And people – we were afraid and we refused to get out and so they opened fire, just like that – so I sustained four gunshots and the spinal injury and I lost two of my cousins and other relatives,”
“Despite that, I’m now in school and in September I’ll do my final year at high school and hope to go to any university of my choice. “
Johnson then makes an appeal. He has a message he wants to get out to the world.
 “As a student and on behalf of the children and the wounded amputees, I am pleading for help with scholarships for children, to help to pay their school fees.”
“Children are not going to school, because now as you can see their parents have been handicapped and have no where to get income – sit it is impossible for them to send their children to school.
“I think if they went to school, by the time they finished they would help their parents, who have been handicapped now. Some of our parents beg around the streets. During Fridays, if you go downtown, you will see a lot of amputees going around begging for their daily bread. It is not easy. “
It’s a point also stressed by Bundu Kamara, who sits nearby. He has a white bandage covering a stump, all that remains of his left hand.Â
 “On Friday, if you went to the street, you would find a lot of us are in the street begging alms,” he says. “So please help us survive and help get our children into school and to get medication.”
“People who’ve suffered as you have suffered don’t just suffer for a few hours or days, but for your whole lives,” Wolfowitz tells them.
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