By Alfred Koroma (ATJLF/MRCG Fellow 2025)
In a small apartment in Shell, Freetown, 60-year-old Adama Sesay, known as Tha Dama, shares her story amidst playful jabs from her grandchildren. They tease her about flinching at the sounds of gunshots and tear gas during the violent protests in August 2022. For her, these sounds are not just alarming; they are haunting echoes of the 11-year civil war that ravaged the country and led to the loss of her husband.
The conflict which started in 1991 and ended in 2002 left over 50,000 dead and displaced over 2 million people. “My husband went out to buy food and never returned. I don’t know if he was killed or simply disappeared,” she recalls.
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