"I feel free here. It's not like back home where you are forced to dothings," reveals Madalena Nsimba, who fled to the UK from Cabinda inAngola four years ago. "When I turned 16 the army came to force me to bea girl soldier so I left," she explains.
Four years ago, Angola was ravaged by war with child soldiersstrong-armed into fighting for both the government army and the Unitarebels.
"If Madalena had stayed, she could have ended up on the frontlinefighting or she may have been used as a sex slave for the soldiers,"says Pedro Lunguela, co-ordinator of the Angolan Advice and InformationCentre in Tottenham, North London.
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