The Global Center on Human Trafficking
GRACE, 15 – UGANDA
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. They attacked her boarding school and abducted 139 girls. Grace was among the 30 captives taken to Southern Sudan, where they were tortured, raped and forced to kill. “At first, I was scared of even beating someone else because I was afraid they would get hurt,” she says. When I was forced to kill another human being…that really altered me. It affected me psychologically. Seeing somebody suffer because they are being mutilated is the worst thing you can ever witness.” The children weren’t trained as soldiers. They learned how to dismantle, clean and assemble guns and were thrown in the deep end – battling with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. “It was survival of the fittest,” says Grace. “You had to shoot that gun to get food, you had to fight at the frontline to survive. They [the LRA] said hunger and thirst would teach us everything.” (Source)