Crude Amputation: Africa’s Epidemic of Violence

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Crude AmputationAfricas Epidemic of Violence

• Africa Project
• PT 270A

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Crude Amputation Defined as

• The deliberate dismemberment of a body part to
  inflict pain, fear, disablement, and control of a
  person or population
• Primarily hands/arms, feet/legs, lips, ears,
  nose

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Who is spared?

• No one
• Young and old
• Sick and mentally ill
• Men and women
• Pregnant

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Three Primary Categories of Amputations

• Crude Amputations performed by non-surgical
  edged weapons (machetes, knives)
• Collateral Amputations caused by landmines and
  other IEDs
• Islamic Sharia laws that enforce crimes with
  amputations (stealing)

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Prevalance of Amputation in Africa

• Sierra Leone
• Angola
• Democratic Repulic of Congo
• Liberia
• Rwanda

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Crude Amputation Incidence

• Sierra Leone from 1999-2002 20,000
  amputations, 50,000 killed in 1998 UNICEF
  designated Sierra Leone as the 2nd most dangerous
  country for children in the world
• Liberia 1989-1996 40,000 amputations, 150,000
  killed
• Angola 1992-1999 100,000 amputations, 500,000
  killed in 1998 UNICEF designated Angola as the
  1st most dangerous country for children in the
  world
• Democratic Republic of Congo 1998-1999
• 30,000 amputations, 80,000 killed

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Crude Amputation Incidence (cont)

• Rwanda 1994 genocide of Tutsis by Hutu militia
  figures unknown but approx. 1 million people
  were killed over a 100 day period
• Estimated that 1/3 of these fatalities were from
  crude amputations
• 4 million people killed in Africa since 1998
  many by crude amputation
• In all of these regions statistics are probably
  higher (gvmt cover-ups and lack of documentation)

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Precipitating Factors for Crude Amputation

• Diamond Trade
• Interesting fact Sierra Leones neighbor
  Liberia has an annual diamond mining capacity of
  150,000 carats. Yet between 1994-1998, more than
  31 million carats were imported from Liberia.
  Where did these come from?
• Civil War
• Socio-Economic / Political Factors
• Symbolism

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Diamond Trade

• Fighting over diamond stockpiles which finance
  rebels and civil wars
• From 1994-1998, 31 million carats were mined from
  Liberia alone
• Diamonds are forever, so are amputations.

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Civil War

• Amputations used to cause fear and disablement to
  weaken enemy resistance cant fight back
• Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel army
  group that carried out most of Sierra Leone
  amputations (disbanded circa 2007) Blood
  Diamond movie
• You dont hold your weapon against your brother

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Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
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Socio-Economic / Political reasons

• To prevent farmers/workers from harvesting crops
• To prevent people from voting through
  intimidation and cutting off the voting arm
• Popular voting slogan people had power in
  their hands

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Rwanda political propaganda poster translates
What weapons are we going to use to beat the
cockroaches to death.
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Symbolic

• Emotional impact of suffering crude amputation
  daily reminder
• Stigma esp. with amputations involving noses,
  ears, lips (isolation) but also for those who
  cant work from their injuries
• Women who suffered amputations also have high
  probability of having been raped

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Collateral Amputations

• Caused by landmines or other IEDs
• Especially high statistics among children
• Children see the explosive devices as things to
  play with (a potential toy)
• Explosives are usually left over from civil wars
  and forgotten

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Collateral Amputations (cont)

• Over 20,000 amputations annually (largely in
  Africa)
• 80 of those maimed are civilians
• Many victims were displaced refugees trying to
  return back home (esp. from Angola and Sudan)

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Collateral Amputation impacts

• Children often removed from school which limits
  education and socialization
• Survivors often seen as a burden to
  family/village
• Takes 3.00 to make a single landmine, 1,000 to
  find and safely disarm

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Not Miss Angola Miss Landmine?
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Islamic Sharia

• Islamic law that allows amputation against
  certain crimes
• Primarily used for theft (hand amputation)
• Very controversial and deemed a crime against
  humanity by Human Rights Watch and other groups
• Example Buba Jangebe, in 2000 had his hand
  amputated for stealing a cow

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Islamic Sharia
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Islamic Sharia

• Prevalent in Northern Africa (Nigeria)
• Muslims hoped that it would curb high crime rates
  
• Falling out of favor due to international
  pressure as well as gvmt corruption
• Double standard women often penalized more
  severely than men

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Mending the Wounds

• Surgical amputations performed over crude
  amputation sites (wound mgmt reshaping)
• Ending the violence and reeducating the people
• Trauma counseling for survivors
• Justice (RUF, rebel, gvmt prosecutions)
• Restore Pride Amputees cup, Miss Landmine,
  Bubble wrap prosthetics

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Outreach Outlook

• Foreign aid which provides wheel chairs,
  prosthetics, and ambulation devices
• Therapy services from across the world
• Creating awareness of these atrocities (media)
• Providing jobs to amputee survivors
• Creating an inter-gvmt coalition of cooperation
  among African countries and states

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Hope for the Future

• Educating the people (esp. children)
• Amputee survivors as advocates
• Continued foreign aid
• Improved medical services

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Ultimately even if their hands have been taken,
the people must know that they still have the
power to make change.
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References

• Amato, Len (Producer), Zwick, Edward (Director).
  2006. Blood Diamond DVD. Warner Brothers
  Pictures.
• Hawley, C (2000). The War Amputees of Sierra
  Leone. Canadian Medical Association Journal,
  2000/06/27.
• Kendall, Clare (2008). Kroo Bay, Sierra Leone.
  British Telegraph, 2008/04/07.
• The Progress of Nations 1999. New York UNICEF
  1999.
• Smillie, I. The Heart of the Matter Sierra
  Leone, Diamonds and Human Security. Partnership
  Africa Canada. 2000/05/31.
• Yaounde, Cameron (2005). Diabetes and Foot Care
  Put Feet First Prevent Amputations.
  International Diabetes Federation, 2005/04/12.

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Review questions

• What areas of the body are subject to crude
  amputations in Africa?
• Hands
• Feet
• Tongues
• All of the above
• Crude amputation is defined as
• Medically necessary amputation performed in a
  sterile clinical setting
• Amputations done to prevent the spread of
  gangrene.
• The deliberate dismemberment of a body part to
  inflict pain, fear, disablement, and control of a
  person or population
• None of the above
• Collateral amputations are caused by
• IEDs, mines, and other warfare induced
  amputations
• Amputations done above the limb which is
  gangrenous to prevent further spread of the
  disease
• Removal of a cyst and its surrounding tissue
• None of the above
• What is Islamic Sharia
• Religious scripture which allows holy wars to be
  fought against those considered unjust
• Time of the month when special prayers must be
  offered
• Religious laws which dictates that the society is
  to be patriarchal