Aboke abductions

[1] The deputy head mistress of the college, Sister Rachele Fassera of Italy, pursued the rebels and successfully negotiated the release of 109 of the girls.

The Aboke abductions and Fassera's dramatic actions drew international attention, unprecedented at that time, to the insurgency in northern Uganda.

[8] Following the rise to power in January 1986 of President Yoweri Museveni after the victory of his rebel National Resistance Army, the north of Uganda was wracked by conflict as first the rebel Uganda People's Democratic Army and then the chiliastic Holy Spirit Movement struggled against the new rulers.

Despite attempts by the government to destroy or co-opt the LRA, it remained a weak but threatening force in the northern bush.

The rebels began to target civilians, mutilating those they thought to be government sympathisers and abducting children as child soldiers and sex slaves.

The option of moving the girls out of the school and dispersing them was discussed, but it was already dark and the possibility that LRA rebels would be waiting outside to attack deterred the sisters from this course.

Fassera changed clothes and took some money from the office to buy the girls' freedom when two male teachers, Bosco and Tom, came in and volunteered to accompany her in the pursuit.

LRA bands were known to plant anti-personnel mines on their back trail to discourage pursuit and Bosco soon took the lead, telling Fassera to only step into his footprints.

Coming through the valley, the three emerged from some dense brush to find themselves facing the leveled rifles of 30 rebels arrayed in two lines.

The former might lead the rebels to treat her with more caution than they would another Ugandan, while the second was a position of respect in a religious country when dealing with a group that was led by a mystic.

Fassera had spent a year and a half in Gulu and knew enough of the Acholi language to begin speaking with the man who identified himself as the leader of the LRA band.

The leader, Mariano Ocaya, stated that he did not want the money she had brought, but in response to her request that he release the girls, to her astonishment, replied "Do not worry.

Fassera began to think that she would actually get all the girls back, but at that moment a UPDF helicopter gunship passed overhead, forcing everyone to scatter and hide in the brush and Ocaya ordered everyone to move again.

For four hours, the group continued on a forced march, periodically hiding from the gunship searching the area, as a rearguard of rebels slowed the UPDF soldiers.

[14] The group, apparently losing the UPDF, arrived in a camp where there were still more abductees and the St. Mary's College girls were again separated from the others.

[14][2] When Fassera protested, Ocaya said that she could write a letter to Joseph Kony with the names of the girls and he might agree to release them.

Afterwards the LRA rebels left the corpse in the open and beat those who wept, both as a lesson about attempting to escape and as a way to break the social ties between the girls.

One evening, Judith and another girl from the group of other captives, Caterina, had their hands bound behind their backs and were attacked with sticks, bicycle chains and machetes.

[17] After a week of walking, the girls were brought north to Kony's base in Southern Sudan where they were given to various commanders as "wives".

The CPA appealed to Pope John Paul II, who condemned the abductions, therefore drawing international attention to the incident and the situation in northern Uganda in general.

[citation needed] On 7 March 1997, President Museveni wrote to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan describing the plight of the Aboke girls.

Ajok escaped during the Garamba offensive against the LRA, making her way to a UPDF base in Dungu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[5][3] In February 2001 during the presidential campaigns, Yoweri Museveni was reported to have said that Aboke girls should no longer be an issue as they were already affected by HIV/AIDS while he was speaking over Radio Rhino FM in Lira.