Effect of Civil War

Have you ever experienced any war in your country or anywhere in the world? It has been more than six years since the civil war ended in Liberia, but its awful effects still linger in my life. The war started in the night while we were asleep, and we had to leave our houses in chicken soup factory and go to another state name red light to escape for our lives. During the war, everything we owned had been taken away by the rebels. I will never forget those terrible events: the sound of gun fire, the lack of food and drinking water and the curfew and the fear for my life because those memories remain with me daily.

First, the sound of gun fire still echoes in my ears every day. It always reminds me of the time when my family and I had to hide under the bed to avoid being hit by gun shots. It was a situation that no one could get used to. The rebels who lived among us used guns as some kind of protection for their own lives. They were young children ranging in ages from ten to fifteen. The memory of those sounds lives with me on a daily basis because each time I hear a loud sound, I think about what terrified me during the war in Liberia. Some days we will be locked up in the house because the rebels used to take women to be their wife and the men to work for them. They never had any feelings about killing also; they never had questioned taking the little children as their wives.

Second, the food and drinking water were hard to find in Liberia during the civil war. There was no food to be found anywhere because the war halted all business activities in Monrovia. Ships that were carrying food to Liberia were directed to other countries, so no importation of food to Liberia was possible. It was not long after the war started when we used up all the food that was stored before the war. Those who had the opportunity to store some food started to sell the food, but they priced their food items out of reach for poor people. In addition, drinking water was cut off by the rebels. Well water that was used to bathe and wash clothes became the only source of drinking water. This affected my family and me because when my sister was sick, my mother took her to the hospital, but the doctor told her there was no medicine because the rebels broke in to the hospital and took all the medicine. The doctor told her to take her home and give her food and come back with her after 24 hours because they sent for medicine from another hospital. However, when my mother got home and couldn’t find any food, my sister eventually died.

Finally the effect of war was the imposition of curfew that made life a living hell for us. Residents of Monrovia were not allowed to leave there houses at any time. At certain times during the war, we had to live indoors for two to three days. This was because the government of Liberia and the fighters did not want civilians to get in the cross fire. There was no battle field. Fighting took place among us and the rebels did not have uniforms to distinguish them from the rest of us. This made it was hard for us to go outside because we did not know who the rebels were or where they were killing people.

The fear for our life kept us under our beds for two to three days at a time. The fighting was an ongoing event, so we had very little time to do anything for ourselves. It was a horrifying experience for one to have to choose between life and death. This was exactly what the situation was. Even when government did not impose curfew, the fear for our lives made us to live under self imposed curfew. Finally the war ended in Liberia after all this time, but we lost everything we had and lost some of our family members. Now most of my family is in another country. We are no longer together as before because of the war.