Ballerina DePrince recalls horrific machete attack

WARNING: This clip contains a disturbing description of a machete attack.

Ballerina Michaela DePrince was born in the middle of Sierra Leone's civil war and at the age of just three-years-old witnessed an horrific atrocity.

Rebel soldiers attacked her pregnant teacher with a machete cutting her open to find out the sex of her baby.

She recounts details of the attack to Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur and says talking about it helps her cope with it.

She said: It is easier for me to tell it so I don’t get emotional… it is easier for me to say it now with a wall instead of thinking about it because it is too painful to think about and feel those emotions.

"It is hard for me to be able to continue my day or to continue what I want to do in my life because then it is just going to hold me back."

You can see the interview in full on Wednesday 19 April on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel and after on BBC iPlayer (UK only)