Photos in the News: Liberia’s Amputee Soccer Players
It’s one thing to play on an amputee soccer team because you have lost a leg in an accident; it’s quite another to be consigned to playing on this team because your leg was chopped off in a brutal war. The conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the 1990s left many without arms, legs, and, in many cases, their lives. The man who backed much of this violence was Charles Taylor, the American-educated former president of Liberia. As Taylor goes on trial for war crimes, these two Liberian amputee players - both former child soldiers - are a reminder of his brutality. They play for two of several amputee teams in Sierra Leone and Liberia, teams created not by accidents, but by horrific acts of violence.
Photo credit: AP / Rebecca Blackwell
