Oketch Bitek
14 November 2009
Kampala — A former child abductee was last Friday reunited with her two-year-old daughter she lost during battle in the DR Congo. Stella Acan thought her child, Mercy Aol, had been killed in a battle in Garamba forest seven months ago.
Acan's group was attacked by regional armies in DR Congo in March. She was shot in the leg, arm and suffered bomb injuries. She threw away her baby when she was wounded.
The baby was picked by the regional armies, which handed her to the Christian Counselling Fellowship (CCF). "The attackers thought that I had been killed and they simply pursued the other LRA fighters," Acan said. Meanwhile, Acan spent two days lying in a pool of blood until her group returned and picked her.
"Commander (Okello) Kalalang looked for my baby in vain and we concluded that she had died," she said. Acan was at the time 'married' to Kalalang, LRA Director of Operations, after her first 'husband' Charles Okello was killed. Okello was Mercy Aol's father.
In October, Achan was freed by a rebel commander called Ocen because she was injured and her 'husband', had been killed. She surrendered to the Sudan People's Liberation Army which handed her over to the Uganda People's Defence Forces.
Acan says she was abducted in 2003 from her home village at Kulu-Otit, in Bobi Sub-County, in Gulu District by Okot Odhiambo's group, the current LRA rebel army Commander. She was in primary Five.
At the moment she is six months pregnant with Kalalang's baby and being taken care of by Gulu Save the Children Organization [GUSCO].
CCF coordinator Alice Acan said that Mercy was under their care as they tried to locate the village of her late father in Pader and they were not aware that the mother was alive.
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