HU OSA 350-3-2:7/1

Operation Annihilation

Item

Moving Image

35 minutes

English (Original)

Warning: graphic images.

Not Restricted

documentary film

A film documenting the most brutal period of the civil war in Sierra Leone when RUF rebels implemented “Operation Annihilate Every Living Thing” and “Operation Burn Freetown” on their way to capturing the capital city in January 1999. More than half of the invasion force was composed of children or teenagers who, after being abducted, abused, and sometimes drugged, were divided into burn house units, cut hand commandos, and bloodshed squads. When the Nigerian-led ECOMOG forces came to defend the city, the rebels withdrew, abducting more children to bolster their units. The film looks at the fate of these children, and ultimately the fate of Sierra Leone, by following two children as they attempt to re-integrate themselves into society: Sheriff Koroma who was abducted at the age of 11, but escaped the camps and is looking for his family through the National Tracing Program; and Ibrahim Barry Junior, 16 years old, who was abducted at the age of nine, drugged, and taught how to kill, eventually killing for six different rebel factions in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The film features interviews with journalist Sorious Samura, who stayed and survived the attacks in Freetown; Rogers, S.B. (War Council Chairman of the RUF), who is responsible for the abductions; former child soldiers Sheriff and Ibrahim, and their surviving family members; children with severed limbs in amputation camps; Kamajors leaders and Kamajors child soldiers; and Sierra Leonean government officials, experts, counselors, and therapists.