Mildred One Tuesday in February 2004, we received a report that soldiers were in Gulgoi. Only a few soldiers remained in Abia. At about 5 pm in the evening, we heard gunshots being.red from the direction of the camp. The gunshots were so close and it was clear that the camp had been attacked.
Before the gunshots, I saw people walking in a single line. I was grinding millet behind my hut. Some of the people were carrying water, while others wore uniforms that resembled those of government soldiers (4). They followed the route leading to the barracks then all of a sudden they turned their attention on us saying, ‘you there, get into your house, today you will understand!’.
I gathered my six children and we entered our house. They surrounded all our homesteads as though they were watching over us.
One of the men with a gun stood behind the teacher’s house while I was trying to organize a few things in the kitchen. I sent my children to take refuge under the bed. At that time, fire had already started gutting some huts. I heard them ordering someone to get back inside the hut, little did I know that the command was directed to my own children.
Fighting broke out, guns were being fired from all directions, screams and cries could be heard everywhere. At the same time the rebels (5) were torching peoples’ huts while others were held at gunpoint. One of the rebels pulled grass from the thatch of my hut and set my hut on fire. When my house was ablaze, the rebels were convinced that they had left us for the dead. They ran away, their mission had been accomplished.
I called out to my children, ‘Let us get out, let us not die in this house, even if I died in this house you children should survive to continue our line’. The children started crawling out of their hiding place one by one. I saw one of my children trying to drown his head in a pot of drinking water. I quickly removed my shirt, wrapped him up and carried him outside. I ran back inside to rescue the others.
As I was struggling, fire blocked the entrance of our door. I pleaded with people who could hear to come and rescue my children and I: ‘come and help me the rebels have killed my children, please don’t let me die alone with my children’. Some people braved the fire and managed to drag out my children. By the time I was rescued, there was commotion outside. My children had been taken to one of the huts that had not been burnt. I joined them in the same hut and locked the door.
Behind the locked door my body was burning. The people outside were banging the door. My children were crying, ‘mama pour water on my back, pour water on my head, my whole body is burning up’. It was a chorus of pleas. I got some water, poured on my children’s’ bodies then poured on mine. The banging on my door was getting louder. Gunshots were exploding in the air, screams and wails could be heard from all directions. The people outside were rebuking my children to become silent or else the rebels would finish even the remnants of Abia. The people of Abia were defenceless. My mother managed to force the door open and joined us. I saw people scattering in different directions.
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Euan Denholm/IRIN
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All of a sudden the whole place was silent. After the silence came dawn. The next morning the remaining soldiers told us that they had been defeated. There were many children who had been burnt alive, others had been clobbered to death. As the day broke, people started emerging from their hiding places. I heard my children calling, ‘mama come out and help us, mama let us come and carry you out’. I told them not to bother. Outside were widows whose husbands had been burnt alive together with their children. My landlord had been burnt to death only his skull was left in ashes. All our properties had been destroyed.
When I got out of the house, a government car was waiting to take me to hospital. I had to jump over bodies to get to the car. When I got to the car, I was too weak to move I had to be supported to get inside the car. I lay on the floor of the car, as it started moving.
By the time we reached Corner Apalla my eyes had started swelling and by the time we reached Centre Ogur, I could not see anything. When we reached hospital, I could not see anything I even didn’t know the ward that I was admitted in. I stayed in hospital for one week. I could not see but I could hear people’s cries. I could hear voices speaking if someone passed by, I could tell by the sound of their footsteps. I was transferred to Lira Hospital and I stayed there from April to May 2004.
From there I was transferred to Lira Modern where a certain Muganda (6) woman came and took pity on me. I stayed with her until September 2004. My burns healed and I was operated upon in October 2004. After the operation I returned home. I have nothing to survive on. My plea to the government is that I have been disabled, I don’t have energy to do anything. Government should build me a house and connect me to a water supply.
I have been depending on the World Food Programme for food. We don’t have food, the food we cultivated is over. I even have nothing to plant. There are times when I go without food. My children cannot study well even if they want to study, hunger cannot allow them to concentrate in class. There are times I remain silent yet people should have mercy on me because what I went through is more than anyone can bear.
The other issue I have is that the government should heal the wounds of Abia. My children and I are suffering all because of Kony (7) who has forced us into the camp. I don’t know what will happen to our children. This business of putting people in one place has brought diseases of different natures but HIV/AIDS has finished many people. Government should get rid of this disease. If you take a look at me, I have been disabled. If I try to work, the scars swell and start bleeding. My whole body has problems.
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[4] Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF), the national army
[5] Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony
[6] Name of a tribe found in central Uganda 7 Joseph Kony, head of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a guerilla group engaged in a violent rebillion since 1987. Kony claims he aims to etstablish a government in Uganda based on the Ten Commandments