By Fatmata Tidankay Kamara (ATJLF/MRCG Fellow 2025)
One thing that makes Sierra Leone’s civil war stand out is the level of atrocities committed by the factions.
The documentary “Cry Freetown,” directed by Sorious Samura, a Sierra Leonean journalist who risked his life to film on the front lines during the war, gives a fair account of it. It depicts the most brutal period of the conflict that featured the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels against government soldiers, and then the intervention of forces of the Economic Community West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG).
Like many other communities, Kuntorloh, situated in the east end of Freetown, away from the hustles and bustles of the city center, went through its own experience in the war. Ibrahim Koroma lived through it and witnessed the brutality of rebels which turned the community into a “living hell.” Prior to this, Ibrahim remembers Kuntorloh only as a “peaceful and beautiful” community anyone would love to reside in.
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