UNICEF published an awful, true story. The story of Grace Akallo who was abducted by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army and forced to fight – to live. She talks about her captivity and how education became her hope, her salvation – and her impetus to fight for peace.
From the article published by UNICEF:
She speaks of her days in captivity with a calculated dissociation. It’s very difficult talk about it, she says. Seventeen years on, looking back is still so painful that she needs to distance herself from the past to be able to share her story. “That place was like a grave. It was like …you’ve gone to the last place on earth.”
To the grave and back – Grace Akallo was just 15 years old when she was captured by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Aboke, northern Uganda. The militant group is notorious for sexually assaulting, kidnapping and killing thousands of civilians. Grace remembers every minute of the day with clarity.
The young girl recalls the horrible moment:
“It was October 9th, 1996…our independence day. We had heard rumors that the rebels were coming, there were fears already. We would run out of class and hide in the bush every time we thought they were coming.”
Below: UNICEF’s Priyanka Pruthi talks to Grace Akallo, kidnapped at 15 and forced into the Lord’s Resistance Army, about her torturous past and the hope that brought her to her future.
