Girls as “Weapons of Terror” in Northern Uganda and Sierra Leonean Rebel Fighting Forces

Author: McKay, Susan

Source: Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Volume 28, Number 5, September-October 2005 , pp. 385-397(13)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $49.55 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

Girls—both willingly and unwillingly—participate in terrorist acts within the context of contemporary wars. These acts range from targeting civilians for torture and killing to destroying community infrastructures so that people's physical and psychological health and survival are affected. Girls witness or participate in acts such as mutilation, human sacrifice, forced cannibalism, drug use, and physical and psychological deprivation. This article focuses upon girls in two fighting forces: the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone and their roles as combatants whose primary strategy is perpetrating terrorist acts against civilians. In analyses of gender and terrorism, girls are typically subsumed under the larger category of female, which marginalizes their experiences and fails to recognize that they possess agency and power.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10576100500180253

Affiliations: 1: Women's and International Studies and Nursing, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA

Publication date: 2005-09-01

More about this publication?