WAR CRIMES COURT / AMPUTEE CAMP / SEX SLAVE

The dusty Murraytown Amputee Camp transports one backwards to the aftermath of a nineteenth century war, to archaic medieval ferocity.

There are camps for polio survivors in Sierra Leone; there is a leprosy encampment. But, this, the limbless enclave of Sierra Leone is where survival is rawest. 

One or two people spend their nights on a bench; others lie unprotected on the dusty ground.  Tin sheeting weighed down with stones cover a few dotted sites. There is no running water, no electricity. Dust rises and chokes, it causes sand-clogged eyes to pour tears. In extreme heat survivors with at least one arm, fan themselves with large leaves. 

Residents are listless and lost. They have squatted here in this makeshift plot, (unofficially called Vulnerable People’s Camp) since 1999 when the MSF France group (Doctors Without Borders) formed the camp.   

Together with assistance from World Vision Food Programme, and a Catholic organisation that runs a primary school for child amputees, the 200 –or-so odd amputees have managed to subsist. Many of them have helpless family members living in the camp with them.