Aboke abductions

The Aboke abductions were the kidnapping of 139 secondary school female students from St. Mary's College boarding school by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army on October 10, 1996, in Aboke, northern Apac District, Uganda. The deputy head mistress of the college, Sister Rachele Fassera, of Italy, pursued the rebels and negotiated the release of 109 of the girls. The Aboke abductions and Fassera's dramatic actions drew international attention, unprecedented at that time, to the insurgency in northern Uganda.

Following the rise to power in January 1986 of President Yoweri Museveni after the victory of his rebel National Resistance Army, the north of Uganda was wracked by conflict as first the rebel Uganda People's Democratic Army and then the chiliastic Holy Spirit Movement struggled against the new rulers. In January 1987, another rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) was started by the spirit-medium Joseph Kony and it shortly became the sole surviving rebel force.

Despite attempts by the government to destroy or co-opt the LRA, it remained a weak but threatening force in the northern bush. In early 1994, the character of the LRA changed after it began to be supplied by the government of Sudan. The rebels began to target civilians, mutilating those they thought to be government sympathisers and abducting children as child soldiers and sex slaves.

Most LRA activities at this time were concentrated within the three districts comprising Acholiland: Gulu, Pader and Kitgum. However, the violence sometimes reached into Apac District, which borders Gulu and Pader to the south. On 21 March 1989, the LRA had carried out a raid on St. Mary's College, a Combonian school for girls mainly between the ages of 13 and 16. The rebels had abducted 10 schoolgirls and 33 seminarians and villagers, as well as killing others whom they had run across. In that incident, Fassera had tried to follow the rebels but had been forced to turn back after a battle erupted between the LRA force and a patrol of the government Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF). Nine of the ten girls eventually escaped, while one was killed in a battle several years later. As a result, a UPDF unit was assigned to protect the college.

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