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.
Anek Judita had suffered a stroke and her words were slow and halted as she recounted the story of her daughter’s abduction. Akello Acii was only 12 years old when she was abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army in 2004. Her mother last saw her on the morning she was abducted.
Acii and her older sister left the family home to carry firewood into town to sell. Along the way, at around 9AM, they were met by rebel soldiers who took Acii.
“All they said was ‘move,’” Judita remembered.
Judita has not seen her daughter since, but she cherishes her memory. Next to the home where Acii lived with her family, the girl had planted two fruit trees. A mango tree and a jackfruit tree.
Now they remind Judita of the daughter she once had.
“When I sit under the tree, when I eat the fruit, I remember my daughter,” she said.
Judita said that if there are people who can look for Acii, then let them help her to get her daughter back. Her voice was confident as she spoke for her child to hear:
“Acii, my daughter, you come back home.”
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