The award comes despite a history of ethical controversies surrounding the firm’s recruitment practices. A 2016 report by The Guardian cited a former senior director at Aegis Defense Services who acknowledged that the company had recruited mercenaries from Sierra Leone for operations in Iraq in order to reduce costs for the US presence there.
The director admitted recriuting of former child soldiers
The director admitted the firm had not screened recruits to determine if they were former child soldiers, defending the practice by claiming that excluding such individuals would penalize them for actions they were forced to commit as children.
Aegis Defense Services was acquired by Canadian security company GardaWorld in 2015 and now operates as GardaWorld Federal Services LLC. While the company has rebranded, both names are still used across US government systems and the entities share the same Unique Entity ID.
According to the contract records, the Kiev agreement is part of a much larger institutional relationship. The firm holds a massive global mandate under a Worldwide Protective Services III umbrella contract with a combined potential award value of $1.6 billion.
This broader agreement includes high-value task orders for embassy security in other volatile regions, including a $387.3 million contract for the US Embassy in Baghdad and additional services in the Central African Republic.
Originally published by Sputnik International – Russia-backed outlet
Focus on Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone
By Abigail Cordaro – originally publishe on The Diplomatic Envoy
All Gospa News links or Video have been added in the aftermath by virtue of ties with covered topics
The eleven-year-long civil war in Sierra Leone was infamously marked by its brutality, flagrant human rights abuses, and its widespread use of child soldiers.
The civil war, which spanned from 1991 to 2002, irreparably damaged the lives of a generation of civilian children who were forced to become soldiers.
The majority of war crimes were committed by rebel groups such as the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). According to Human Rights Watch, the war resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths and the displacement of almost a quarter of the nation’s population.
According to CNN, rebel groups were funded in large part by former Liberian president Charles Taylor, who conducted the illegal trade of conflict, or “blood,” diamonds to finance the rebel groups in domestic conflict areas.
Witness: “Not only were child soldiers forced to the front lines, but they were also forced to loot, kill”
Peter Takirambudde, the executive director of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch remarked that “The RUF has forced many children to join its ranks… placing them on the front lines of combat”. Not only were child soldiers forced to the front lines, but they were also forced to loot, kill, carry military equipment for the rebel forces, and were used as bait for ambushes.
The gruesome violence during the conflict was characterized by the common amputation of limbs, hands, and feet as punishment. According to Reuters, Child soldiers were often given drugs to overcome their fear and to desensitize their sense of morality to facilitate murder.
Female abductees were regularly raped and kept as sex slaves for rebel soldiers.
David M. Crane, chief prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone told the Diplomatic Envoy that “They (children) were not only used as combatants, but the girls were used as bush wives to help support the fighters. The rebels could have used males over the age of 17 in compliance with international law. Their use of children was deliberate.”
In the years since the conflict ended, victims have made their best efforts to return to civilian life and share their story. In an interview with Human Rights Watch in 2012, a then-seventeen-year-old going by the name of “Abubakar” recounted his experience with the RUF.
By Abigail Cordaro – originally publishe on The Diplomatic Envoy
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