By: Amara Kargbo
At the African Ministerial Conference on the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) of Child Soldiers, Sierra Leone’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Musa Timothy Kabba, delivered one of the most profound speeches of the event revealing his own past as a conscripted child soldier. The conference took place on November 20, 2025, in Rabat, Morocco.
“I stand before you not just as a minister, but as someone who lived through this,” Minister Kabba declared, his voice carrying the weight of personal history. He described his presence at the conference as deeply personal driven by a survivor’s conviction to help Africa craft realistic, humane solutions to the crisis of child soldiering.
Drawing from Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war, he reminded the audience that the deliberate conscription of children was a defining tactic of the conflict. “Children lost their childhood to combat,” he said, recalling how young lives were manipulated through indoctrination, coercion, and forced drug use. He referenced the 2009 ruling of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which convicted the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of systematic war crimes, including the forced recruitment of thousands of children.
Minister Kabba recounted the devastation that followed the war collapsed schools, displaced families, and traumatized communities and the monumental DDR effort that disarmed more than 70,000 combatants, including 6,800 children.
“Reintegrating these children was far more than a technical exercise; it was a humanitarian sacrifice,” he emphasized. Victims, he noted, need more than material support they require the restoration of identity, dignity, and belonging. “I know what it means for a child to be taken by conflict, and what it means to return to a community that was supposed to protect you,” he said, linking his personal journey directly to his policy priorities.
He urged the continent to reject simplistic narratives about child soldiers. “This is not a story of children turning to war willingly. It is a traumatic experience of children being abandoned by circumstance and captured by desperation, fear, or force.” He highlighted the silent suffering of girls whose violations often remain unspoken and the fragile balance communities face between trauma and forgiveness.
Looking ahead, Kabba argued that genuine reintegration is a multi-year journey, not a short-term intervention. It must include education, skills development, psychosocial support, and access to sustainable livelihoods. Girls, he stressed, must receive tailored, gender-responsive support that addresses both visible and invisible wounds.
On a continental scale, he issued a strong call to action: “Africa has a responsibility to its children. No child should ever be a tool of conflict.” He called for stronger cross-border cooperation to disrupt illegal arms flows and enhanced intelligence sharing through AU–ECOWAS mechanisms, warning that “smoke in your neighbourhood today might be a blazing fire in your house tomorrow.”
Sierra Leone, through Minister Kabba, proposed several key recommendations, including the creation of an AU Child Soldier Prevention and Early Warning Network; the adoption of a standardized Gender-Responsive DDR Framework; expanded reintegration financing linked to youth development programs; strengthened mental health systems tailored to children emerging from conflict.
Kabba closed his address by offering his own life as a testament to resilience. “This conference is about lives, not just policies. Sierra Leone’s story proves that with compassion and sustained commitment, children of war can become builders of nations.”
Standing before African leaders as a former child soldier turned diplomat, he embodied the very transformation the conference seeks to secure for thousands of children across the continent.