As a little boy Emmanuel Jal lost his mum and then his childhood as the horrific Sudanese civil war pulled in children and forced them to carry out mass killings
A FORMER boy soldier has relived his bleak ordeal as a seven-year-old who struggled to carry his AK47 as a gruesome bloodbath unfolded around him.
Emmanuel Jal, now a 39-year-old dad-of-three, revealed his nightmarish existence as part of International Day Against the Use of Child Soldiers.
Speaking to the from his home in Toronto, Canada, Emmanuel said: “It haunts you for a lifetime. It's like murder of the soul.
“Imagine being seven years old and going onto a battlefield.
"I saw heads being blown off, people dying everywhere, we were like zombies.”
Emmanuel said he became what is known as a Lost Boy after his village called Tonj, in what is now South Sudan, was attacked by pro-government troops.
I saw heads being blown off, people dying everywhere, we were like zombies
Child war veteran Emmanuel Jal
Emmanuel's mum was murdered and he ended up in a refugee camp where he was targeted by recruiters for the rebel force.
But he willingly joined up because he was bent on revenge.
Before long he was brutalised and was burning down villages much like his own.
He said: “Young people can be programmed to do these things, war is all they know.”
During the Sundanese civil war of between 1983 to 2005 it is estimated that two million mostly civilians perished.
Meanwhile boy soldiers who could take no more began killing themselves and Emmanuel decided to follow suit.
But fortunately for him the gun became jammed. And he believes his lucky escape meant he was destined to tell his story to stop the scandal of child soldiers.
Together with a group of other boys he managed to flee and was later smuggled out of the country to the UK by an aid worker.
Today he lives in Toronto, Canada, and has forged a career as an acclaimed rapper.
In 2014 he had a role in a film The Good Lie, starring Reese Witherspoon, which was about the Sudanese Civil War.
He has also authored the autobiography War Child.
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