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Jessica, Uganda "I was abducted for the war and trained as a soldier"

[Uganda] Jessica, who is now a teenager, was just nine years old when she was abducted by the Lords Resistance Army (LRA). IRIN
Jessica, who is now a teenager, was just nine years old when she was abducted by the LRA.
    KAMPALA

    Jessica's story

    Jessica, who is now a teenager, was just nine years old when she was abducted by the Lords Resistance Army (LRA).

    "I was abducted for the war and trained as a soldier. If you refuse to be trained as a soldier you would be beaten. You have to do everything they [LRA soldiers] tell you to do or you will be beaten. If one of your friends escapes or tries to escape then you will also be beaten."

    "One day, two girls who were in my group tried to escape but they were caught. And as punishment for escaping those girls were killed and the rebels forced us to watch as they were killed. They brought the two girls and their heads were covered with blood. They told them to lie down and then they killed them with clubs."

    "The rebels told me to lie down and be killed because they said I was one of them [in the same group as the girls]."

    "But one of my friends saved me by telling them that I had not tried to escape. I thought that they would kill me but it was not my day to die."

    For the last 17 years the Acholi people of northern Uganda have been the victims of a brutal, unrelenting rebel insurgency. Innocent civilians have been killed or mutilated and thousands of children have been abducted, forced into combat, and subjected to torture and sexual violence.

    Links
    IRIN In-Depth on the crisis in Northern Uganda

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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