En børnesoldats dagbog

This is my diary. It features guns, drugs, violence and murder. All the things you wouldn’t associate with children.

It all started when they came, they called themselves “ACP”. They said it stood for Against corrupt cops. We got told that they were there to help us. They recruited as many men as they could the first couple of days they were there. Then they started to get violent. Once all the men from the village were sent away, they started to beat all the women and rape them. They raided all houses, and set them on fire.

Then they began to take us. They said we could either join them or get killed, most of us joined. We had nothing left, nowhere to go. And they offered food and shelter. The biggest of the boys were set to carry big heavy guns, while us, the smaller ones were sentenced to carry ammo boxes.

We walked for what felt like months. They killed whatever threat we faced, I began to feel like they weren’t just against corrupt cops. The leader was a big man by the name of Mani, Mani the giant they called him. I often heard chatter between Mani and his next-hand Zulu, about how they were going to take over the big cities. And how the death to the ambassador would come, just as he deserved. I really don’t know what he ever did to us, but when Mani said something. We did it, or we got killed.