When Elephants Fight

When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. This ancient proverb of the Kikuyu people, a tribal group in Kenya, Africa, is as true today as when the words were first spoken, perhaps thousands of years ago. Its essence is simplicity—when the large fight, it is the small who suffer most. And when it comes to war, the smallest, the most vulnerable, are the children.

When Elephants Fight presents the stories of five children—Annu, Jimmy, Nadja, Farooq and Toma—from five very differe…