Who are the Aboke girls?
Mar 28, 2009
ON a day Uganda should have been celebrating her independence, the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels ‘snatched’ the independence of girls of St. Mary’s College. A total of 139 girls in the single-sex boarding school, in Aboke town, were kidnapped by t
By Conan Businge
ON a day Uganda should have been celebrating her independence, the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels ‘snatched’ the independence of girls of St. Mary’s College.
A total of 139 girls in the single-sex boarding school, in Aboke town, were kidnapped by the rebels. They stormed the school, broke into the dormitories and bound the girls with ropes and herded away into the bush; as they wailed in pain and fear.
The girls who were abducted, say they were driven into the jungles; where some have stayed for years.
‘Darkness’ blanketed the country. It was the highest number of children that had ever been kidnapped by any rebel group. Fear, anger, and sorrow ran down the spines of Ugandan and the international community.
It was the greatest tragedy that hit the country during that decade. The raid awakened the whole world to the depth of the war which has crippled northern Uganda, from the late 1980’s.Â
An Italian nun, who was the deputy headmistress; Sr. Rachele Fassera, went into the bush to rescue the girls. As some of the returnees narrated, Sr. Rachele even offered herself to be kidnapped, for the girls to be released, but her pleas were fruitless.
The abducted girls are reported to have been divided into two groups of 30 and 109. The rebels released only 109 of the girls. When Sr. Rachele insisted on having all girls returned to her, rebels threatened to take away even those they had released.
The 30 girls were later divided into groups, to keep them disunited. They were forcefully ‘married’ to rebel commanders. But as years went by, save for only five of them that died in the jungles, all girls have returned home.
The last returnee of the Aboke girls is Catherine Ajok, got home this month. Ajok is a daughter to Dr Alfred Alyai and Licer Namataka of Aboke Village, Apac district.
By the time Ajok was abducted, she was in Senior Two. Later Kony forcefully took her on as a wife. About three months ago, she escaped from a special unit of breastfeeding mothers. For a month, she trekked through the Garamba jungles in northeastern Congo, until she stumbled upon the Ugandan army, which reunited her with her parents.
ON a day Uganda should have been celebrating her independence, the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels ‘snatched’ the independence of girls of St. Mary’s College.
A total of 139 girls in the single-sex boarding school, in Aboke town, were kidnapped by the rebels. They stormed the school, broke into the dormitories and bound the girls with ropes and herded away into the bush; as they wailed in pain and fear.
The girls who were abducted, say they were driven into the jungles; where some have stayed for years.
‘Darkness’ blanketed the country. It was the highest number of children that had ever been kidnapped by any rebel group. Fear, anger, and sorrow ran down the spines of Ugandan and the international community.
It was the greatest tragedy that hit the country during that decade. The raid awakened the whole world to the depth of the war which has crippled northern Uganda, from the late 1980’s.Â
An Italian nun, who was the deputy headmistress; Sr. Rachele Fassera, went into the bush to rescue the girls. As some of the returnees narrated, Sr. Rachele even offered herself to be kidnapped, for the girls to be released, but her pleas were fruitless.
The abducted girls are reported to have been divided into two groups of 30 and 109. The rebels released only 109 of the girls. When Sr. Rachele insisted on having all girls returned to her, rebels threatened to take away even those they had released.
The 30 girls were later divided into groups, to keep them disunited. They were forcefully ‘married’ to rebel commanders. But as years went by, save for only five of them that died in the jungles, all girls have returned home.
The last returnee of the Aboke girls is Catherine Ajok, got home this month. Ajok is a daughter to Dr Alfred Alyai and Licer Namataka of Aboke Village, Apac district.
By the time Ajok was abducted, she was in Senior Two. Later Kony forcefully took her on as a wife. About three months ago, she escaped from a special unit of breastfeeding mothers. For a month, she trekked through the Garamba jungles in northeastern Congo, until she stumbled upon the Ugandan army, which reunited her with her parents.