Even though both sides of the war used child soldiers to fight for them, the RUF recruited more children and usually did so in cruel ways. "Children were abducted and forced to commit various atrocities. Some were ordered to torture and murder their own relatives, before being taken to other villages to slaughter others" (Fofana). The RUF was recruiting children as young as 8 years old, and they would take either boys or girls, it didn't matter as long as they could hold a gun, carry loot or serve as a sex slave.
The RUF would raid villages and abduct any of the surviving children for recruitment. The children would be kept for a couple months of training and they would be killed if they disobeyed orders or if they tried to run away. Most children will go through an initiation which usually involves killing other children who tried to flee or did something wrong (BBC). The RUF would even go as far as trying to recruit children who were being treated at demobilization camps (HRW).
The development of the light AK-47 made it possible for these small children to wield devastating weapons. When the RUF would go to raid a village they believed nothing would put more fear into the civilians then having the village chieftain be executed by a small boy (Child soldiers: Under-age killers). They believed that a child killing an adult sets a strong example for others.
Click Here to see a mini-documentary on atrocities committed in 1996.
Click Here for a link to a blog about RUF war trials
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