An attack by rebels
South Sudan 🇸🇸 “When I was going to school, my father would drop me there on a motorcycle. Once day we found the rebels on the way. They told my father to stop. He stopped. They told him to get off the motorcycle. He got off. I got off too. They told us to sit down and we sat down. They asked my father: “Where are you going?” My father told them we were going to the school. They told us we cannot continue to travel to the school, where I was going to be boarding, and needed to join them in the bush. My father said he will not join them. When he said that, they threatened to kill us. I said: “No way, you cannot kill us. You are all people like us. We are all South Sudanese.” My father insisted he would not join them. They threatened to kill him if he didn’t listen and took my father to the bush. Then I heard a gun shot. I asked them what was going on. They said: “You stay silent!”
At Bidi Bidi Refugee Camp, refugees build their own homes so they have a feeling of safety and accomplishment when they first arrive. Here is Moris building his.
The people who took my father came back. I asked them: “Where is my father?” They told me: “Your father is in the bush.” I asked what happened to him. They said because he didn’t want to listen, they killed him. I said: “Let me see my father, when I witness that he has died, I will believe you.” They said if you want to witness it with your own eyes, come with us. I saw my father lying down, there was no way he could get up. He had been shot with one bullet in the head. Then they said: “Are you ready to go with us?” I asked if I can stay with my father. They said you have no choice, you have to go with us now. I asked to speak to their boss so I can ask him if he could release me. I walked for a very long time, more than two days. The boss told me I had no choice and was not allowed to leave.
Staying in the bush is very difficult. There is nowhere you can eat, nowhere you can get something to help yourself, unless you go and attack people on the way. That is how you can get something to eat. I prayed very hard, that is how I found a way out.
Kakiaja Moris, from South Sudan, with Geoffrey Oryema, from Uganda. Both were abducted by rebel groups. They came together to share their stories.
“When I was at school, my father paid for me to do a computer training course. I almost completed it. I don’t have anywhere to get the money to finish my training. Once I do that, I can start my life again.”
Kakiaja Moris is at Bidi Bidi Refugee Camp in northern Uganda.
