SIERRA LEONE: Joshua, Sierra Leone, “I bought rat poison to kill myself”

KOINDU Wednesday, July 30, 2008 (IRIN) - Joshua’s parents were killed in front of him during the civil war. He was taken in by a pastor, but the man physically abuses him. Plagued with painful memories and afraid of his carer, Joshua made a plan to kill himself with rat poison, but he was caught before he could follow it through. “When the war started, I fled with my mother and father first to Liberia. My mother was pregnant with my brother. The fighting was fierce and we had to move on to...