Freetown — As Sierra Leone joins other African nations to observe the Day of the African Child today June 16, programme director of the Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD) has voiced the urgent need for all Sierra Leonean children to be taken off the mines.

Aminata Kelly-Lamin stated that for too long children in Africa have been used by their parents and/or guardians to fend food for the home, and also for so long the campaign for children not to be in forced labour has fell on deaf hears.

Even though the Child Rights Act became a law in 2009, Kelly-Lamin said children's rights are still being abused, noting that they are used as labourers, and hawking during school hours, while majority of children in the mining areas have become dropouts "because they are being sent to the mines to work. Some still suffer all forms of violence both at home and in public, and some are forcefully married at teenage".

The NMJD director also noted that apart from legislating laws which prohibit children under 18 from being employed in the mines, mining operators in Sierra Leone and authorities concern are almost doing nothing to help discourage the practice. "Our children need to be protected because they are our future leaders," she said.

She added that NMJD is working with its partners to ensure that laws that have been enacted in parliament are properly implemented for the greater benefit of the nation.