Abductions by Joseph Kony’s rebel army have contributed to thousands of missing children throughout East and central Africa. This is a story of one still missing.
Martino sits under a tree next to his home gingerly cupping a booklet in his hand. A small face stares back at him from the page. He is holding his grandson’s, Olike “Ojuku” Bosco’s, identification card, confirming the boy’s enrollment at Atece Primary School.
But, it is hard for Martino to know what Bosco would look like today.
Martino is the grandfather of Bosco, a young boy abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Bosco never completed his primary education because he was abducted by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army in 1998. He was 13-years-old.
“We keep asking those who return about him, but we have lost some hope. We haven’t heard anything so we think he is no longer alive,” Martino said.
If Bosco is still alive, he has been with the LRA for 15 years. The latest news that the family heard of Bosco was in the year 2000 when Martino bravely approached a rebel group operating in the area to ask if Bosco was still alive. He was told that Bosco was, but received no additional information.
“Bosco was abducted very early in the morning. He was digging in the garden with other children. When the rebels came, they all took off running in different directions. He was caught in the bush while trying to flee,” Martino said.
All of the other children managed to escape, returning home with the news of Bosco’s abduction, Bosco’s sister Akello Rose said.
“It can be hard to remember him. He was so young. It was hard to know what he wanted to be in the future and what he would be like,” Martino said.
“I have decided to send my voice so that if he is still alive and hears it, he should come back home,” Martino said in a Come Home Radio message. “If you hear it, you come out like the children of others have done.”
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