As a wife of a rebel leader
“To my utter shock, the rebel leader decided that I would be like a wife to him. And what made it even worse was he also said I needed to be trained as a soldier and join the other rebels in the bush. I was horrified, they were going to train me to kill.”
Uganda 🇺🇬 “I finally built up the courage to escape. I took my opportunity while the commanders were distracted as they planned their next move. I had been abducted by rebel soldiers on the way to wash clothes in my local river near my village in South Sudan. They surrounded me bombarding me with questions. They wanted to know all about the location of the village, the name of the river and the area. They captured me and we walked for three days. Once we got to their destination, I thought they were going to let me go.
To my utter shock, the rebel leader decided that I would be like a wife to him. And what made it even worse was he also said I needed to be trained as a soldier and join the other rebels in the bush. I was horrified, they were going to train me to kill.
The first assignment was an ambush of government troops. We stayed in the bush for six months and lay in wait. The mission was successful for them but as the government now knew our whereabouts, they wanted to move on. While they were distracted trying to get organised, I seized the opportunity. I managed to escape and I walked alone to the border between South Sudan and Uganda at Nimule.
After I had walked for two days it began to sink in. I had been forced to kill four people. I was so very angry and exhausted. I had been barefoot for two days. I knew no one.
At that time, people from South Sudan had started entering Uganda as refugees. I desperately wanted to get somewhere I could feel safe again. I went to the border to ask how to cross to Uganda and was directed to the UNHCR compound. From there to my relief, I was transferred to the Bidi Bidi Refugee Camp. But when I reached the camp, I still felt scared. I was frightened at first to live in a community again after all I felt I had done. I could not forget the lives I had taken.”
