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.
Okidi Charles holding the shirt of his son Opii Christopher
It was on the 10th of October, 1999, that Okidi Charles had dinner with his son Opii Christopher for the last time. At the age of 14, Christopher was abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and no one from his family has seen him since then.
“We had dinner and wished him a good night,” Charles remembered. “Around midnight we heard a scuffle outside the hut he was sleeping in. I stepped out and that’s when I saw a group of men with AK 47s. I was ordered to stay put lest they blow off his head. That’s when I realized they were the LRA.”
Christopher was then tied up along with three other boys and they disappeared into the night. He was the only one abducted from his family. Charles described his son as quiet and obedient, passionate about becoming a doctor one day.
“Every time I heard that a group of returnees had come home, I would rush to check whether my son was among them,” Charles said. “My hopes of ever seeing him again dropped with time.”
His message for his son was for him to return home if he is still alive. “I want him to know that all his mates that were abducted around the same time have come back and are living peacefully in the community.”
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