Sierra Leone: ACN helps Church face trauma after 'senseless war'

26/03/2025, Author: Filipe D’Avilez

A project supported by ACN aims to train 150 priests to be “agents of reconciliation, healing, social transformation and national cohesion”.

Fr Peter Konteh was in bed, asleep, when he first heard the explosions. Jumping to his feet he called out to the other priest in the house to get up and run. “The rebels are coming from the east!” he said, “we must escape”.

“I was shouting terribly, but the other priest turned to me and told me to calm down, that I was no longer in Sierra Leone, but in the USA. What I was hearing were fireworks for the 4 July celebrations. That was when I realised that I was traumatised as well,” Fr Peter recalled, during a visit to the headquarters of Aid to the Church in Need International (ACN).

Fr Peter, who among other posts is currently the president of the Confraternity of Catholic Priests of Sierra Leone, was in New York at the time to advocate before the UN for an intervention in his country’s civil war. Unlike many other wars in Africa, this one was not about religion, ideology or ethnicity, but rather a “very senseless war, about greed”, as armed rebels tried to capture valuable natural resources, including diamond mines.

The war (1991-2002) came at a very turbulent time. A few months after the conflict had begun, the population was asked to participate in a referendum. A vast majority voted to amend the constitution and enshrine a multiparty democracy. “The people preferred to have elections before peace, so that following elections a new government could negotiate with the rebels.”

Unfortunately, things did not work out as planned. Rebels took to cutting off the hands of civilians, to prevent them from being able to participate in elections, and before these could be held, the army seized power in a coup. Over the 11-year conflict tens of thousands of people were killed, with countless others raped, mutilated or forced, even as children, to inflict these atrocities against their countrymen.

“There was a beggar who used to sit outside the cathedral door asking for money. He had no hands, because he had been mutilated during the war. One day, a well-dressed man tried to give him some money, but he refused and caused a commotion. I came out to see what was going on and he told me that the man was the one who had cut off his hands,” Fr Peter recalled.

The priest took the pair to his office, and they heard the poor man vent his anger. “I was never a beggar before; I worked with my hands. But now, I can’t even go to the bathroom by myself. Do you understand the humiliation you have caused me?” he asked his former aggressor, who by this time was also in tears.

“After eight sessions with me, the beggar finally said that he had forgiven the man who cut off his hands, but for the former rebel this was not enough. He wanted to know what he could do to make up for his crimes. He said: ‘I really remember him begging me not to cut off his hands, but we were all drugged, and I did it.’”

“As you can see, even the aggressors are traumatised, at the time they might have acted tough, but these things drain you and you need healing yourself,” Fr Peter told ACN.

During the war and later crises, such as the Ebola epidemic of 2014, the priest explained that the Church became “the voice of the voiceless” and a fearless advocate for victims of all social or religious groups. “The Church became a hub for social services, and even Muslims came to the Church in those times. We had a lot of conversions, because people trusted the Church. We not only gave them bread to eat, but we could advocate for them.”

Relations between religions were already exemplary in Sierra Leone, where 40% of the priests are former Muslims who converted, many of whom while attending Christian schools. “We have a Justice and Peace Commission, and we are often called to mediate disputes between Muslims in their mosques. Some of our African neighbours find this strange, because they think that Christians should not enter a mosque, but this is normal in Sierra Leone,” Fr Peter insisted.

Now the Church has decided to try and take on the issue of trauma. With the help of ACN, 150 priests are participating in a training programme to become “agents of reconciliation, healing, social transformation and national cohesion”.

The Confraternity of Catholic Priests is working with experts from the University of Boston, in the USA, to develop training manuals that will then be used in sessions with priests, religious and laypeople. In this way, Fr Peter explained, the Church hopes to continue to be a beacon of hope in a nation still trying to heal deep wounds.