Sierra Leone's gruesome war: it was indeed a hell of total and terrible suffering.

The war in Sierra Leone, originally begun in 1991 in the eastern region of the country, reached our hometown in northern Sierra Leone, about 50 kilometres from the capital city of Freetown. On April 7, 1995, the rebels attacked Songo where my husband, Alex, and I lived with our children, Alex Jr., Edward, John, Cecilia, Christopher (Victor) and Marissa, as well as with our cousin Mohamed Alie Fofanah and our grandfather.

It was 6 a.m. when the never-to-be-forgotten incident took place. Words will never be enough to express the absolute terror. Our family was still in bed when we heard sporadic gunfire all over the town. The rebels were torching houses. It was like the passing of some evil Olympic torch as the rebels set fire to all the houses one by one. This greatly frightened all of us. We narrowly escaped this bloody situation by fleeing on foot through the forest to Waterloo, a town about 32 km away. We did not take anything along since the attack was so unexpected and we fled so quickly.

The first bitter experience our family suffered was the killing of Grandfather, who was old and unable to run. The entire hous...

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