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 . Background . 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 soldier s 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 seminarian s 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 . By 1996 , the security situation had again worsened . The soldiers of the UPDF had been replaced by Local Defense Unit militia . Rumors began to circulate through the countryside that the LRA was beginning to look at St . Mary ' s College as a likely target again . Nevertheless , in September 1996 , the LDU militia stated that they must move from the college 16 kilometers away to the town of Ikeme . Sister Alba , the mother superior , sent Sister Rachele to negotiate with the LDU commanding officer , who agreed to set up a night patrol if a pickup ferried the soldiers to the college at night and back to Ikeme at dawn . The LRA almost always attacked at night so this was a key breakthrough . Nineteen soldiers were assigned to the protection of the college , but Alba , feeling that the military presence is insufficient to stop an attack , sent Fassera by bike to ask for 50 soldiers , stating that she would otherwise close the school . Fassera did not have a way to transport the soldiers she was requesting , and the LDU officer calmed her by saying that he would send word if there was any danger . Abductions . By 8 : 15 pm on 9 October 1996 , Ugandan Independence Day , the expected soldiers had not yet arrived at the school . The three Sisters held a meeting to decide on a plan of action . The option of moving the girls out of the school and dispersing them was discussed , but it was already dark and the possibility that LRA rebels would be waiting outside to attack , deterred the sisters from this course . An hour later the girls went to bed , though the mother superior stayed up until 11 : 30pm to pray in the chapel . At 2 : 30 am , the night watchman at the college knocked on Sister Fassera ' s door stating : " Sister , the rebels are here . " Sister Fassera immediately woke Sister Alba and then moved out of the convent towards the front gate ( Which was actually a net ) of the compound and spotted the rebels outside the gate . Thinking that the rebels had been slowed by the gate and that they may be able to evacuate the girls through the back gate , the Nuns moved back towards the four dormitories , each of which had about 50 students . However , as they drew closer they saw flashlights around the dormitories and realized that the LRA had already come through the back gate . In the knowledge that , if caught , the rebels would force them to open the doors , Sisters Alba and Fassera woke the one older nun , Sister Matilde , and together hid in the compound ' s stock house . Through the night , they heard the sounds of rebels moving through the compound but never the voice of one of the girls , giving them hope that the rebels had been kept out of the dorms by the iron reinforced doors and windows . Later estimates put the number of armed rebels at about 200 . They burned the school vehicle , ransacked the clinic and unsuccessfully attempted to burn several buildings . As dawn approached , the nuns heard the sounds of the rebels leaving . At first light ( approximately 6 : 30 am ) Sister Alba sighted a small group of girls wandering in the open . When asked if they were okay , Claudia , a girl in the second class ( the equivalent of eighth grade in the United States or Canada - students are typically age 13 - 14 ) , stated that the other girls had been taken away . The sisters rushed to the dormitories for classes four , five and six . However the girls inside , believing that the rebels had captured the nuns refused to open the doors . Eventually the students were persuaded out . They reported to the sisters that the rebels had abducted classes one , two and three . One dormitory window had been broken and another ' s wall demolished . 152 secondary school girls between 13 and 16 years of age had been taken . At the time none of the Sisters were able to perform an accurate count . Pursuit . Fassera immediately volunteered to go after the girls and Sr . Alba agreed . Fassera changed clothes and took some money from the office to buy the girls ' freedom when two male teachers , Bosco and Tom , came in and volunteered to accompany her in the pursuit . Fassera agreed to take the younger of the two , Bosco , and was about to leave when she was stopped by a 13 - year old student who had been raped . Leaving the child with Sr . Alba , Sr . Rachele and Bosco left the college at about 7 a . m . The rebels had looted a large amount of candy and drinks that the college had bought for the Independence Day celebrations and the pursuers found that they could follow a trail of candy wrappers and drink bottles across the bush . They eventually came across a man who was fleeing the group of LRA , but who confirmed they had a group of girls with them . LRA bands were known to plant anti - personnel mine s on their back trail to discourage pursuit and Bosco soon took the lead , telling Fassera to only step into his footprints . After wading through a swamp , Fassera and Bosco were joined by a woman whose daughter had also been abducted by the passing band . Soon after , as they came over a ridge , they saw the band on the ridge ahead . Coming through the valley , the three emerged from some dense brush to find themselves facing the leveled rifles of 30 rebels arrayed in two lines . Sister Rachele was depending on two factors : she was White and a nun . The former might lead the rebels to treat her with more caution than they would another Ugandan , while the second was a position of respect in a religious country when dealing with a group that was led by a mystic . Fassera had spent a year and a half in Gulu and knew enough of the Acholi language to begin speaking with the man who identified himself as the leader of the LRA band . The leader , Mariano Ocaya , stated that he doesn ' t want the money she had brought but , in response to her request that he release the girls , to her astonishment , replied , " Do not worry . I will give you the girls . " The leader ordered the woman who had joined Bosco and Fassera to leave and the pursuers and the LRA rebels then continued up the ridge , Fassera stayed close to Ocaya in the knowledge that only he could release the girls . They caught up with the girls and continued walking with the rebels and their abductees , both the students and other abductees that the rebels had taken before the band made camp near the railroad at Acokara . Ocaya told Fassera to separate the St . Mary ' s College girls from the other captives and warned her against trying to add the other captives from her group . Fassera began to think that she would actually get all the girls back but at that moment a UPDF helicopter gunship passed overhead , forcing everyone to scatter and hide in the brush and Ocaya ordered everyone to move again . Crossing the railroad tracks , the group came under fire from UPDF soldiers and everyone scrambled for cover . For four hours , the group continued on a forced march , periodically hiding from the gunship searching the area , as a rearguard of rebels slowed the UPDF soldiers . The group , apparently losing the UPDF , arrived in a camp where there were still more abductees and the St . Mary ' s College girls were again separated from the others . One of Ocaya ' s " wives " took Fassera behind a hut to bathe and they had an argument when Fassera refused to change out of her habit into a dress . When she returned , Bosco whispered some of the girls were not being released . Fassera asked Ocaya if he was releasing the girls and he shook his head , wrote " 139 " in the dirt with a stick and said that he was releasing 109 and keeping 30 , having selected them for desirable traits while Fassera was absent . When Fassera protested , Ocaya said that she could write a letter to Joseph Kony with the names of the girls and he might agree to release them . Taking a piece of paper , Fassera went back to the girls , she found that the 30 had already been separated . When she approached , the 30 began calling out to her to save them and , at an order from Ocaya , nearby soldiers began beating and kicking the girls . When they again fell silent , Ocaya again ordered Fassera to write down their names . As she came close , the girls again asked her to help , telling her that they would be raped if they stayed until nightfall . Again , Fassera asked Ocaya to release the 30 as well , but he replied that either 30 would stay or all would . One of the girls named Angela offered to write the names , as Ocaya insisted that Fassera join him and the other LRA commanders for tea and cookies . When she returned , Angela whispered that a girl named Janet had slipped into the 109 . Fassera knew that Ocaya was thoroughly capable of ordering all 139 to stay if he found Fassera trying to sneak one of the 30 out , so he went to Janet and told her that she was endangering the entire group . Janet apologized and rejoined the 30 . After telling Judith , the head girl of the class , to look after the other 29 , Fassera and Bosco took the 109 and eventually found their way back to the college . Aftermath . Five of the thirty girls died in captivity and of the remainder all but two eventually made their escape by 2006 . Soon after the abduction , a girl named Jennifer went missing . When she was found hiding in a hut , the rebels dragged her into the open and ordered the others to beat her to death . The girls hit her lightly at first , but then the rebels surrounded the group and beat anyone who was not hitting Jennifer hard . Afterwards the LRA rebels left the corpse in the open and beat those who wept , both as an object lesson about attempting to escape and as a way to break the social ties between the girls . Of the fates of the thirty , the death of Judith , the head girl , is notable for its brutality . It is Sr . Rachele ' s belief that her request of Judith that she look after the others led her to do something that annoyed the rebels . One evening , Judith and another girl from the group of other captives , Caterina , had their hands bound behind their backs and were attacked with sticks , bicycle chains and machete s . Caterina died of her wounds the following morning , but Judith was still alive 24 hours later and asked for water . The rebels instead dragged her into the forest and tied her to a tree . A group of captives gathering firewood found her body a week later but the body had not started decomposing , indicating that she had not been dead for long . After a week of walking , the girls were brought north to Kony ' s base in Southern Sudan where they were given to various commanders as " wives " . Sr . Rachele and the parents of the remaining abducted children formed the Concerned Parents Association ( CPA ) to raise awareness of the abductions and work for the children to be returned . In the course of their advocacy , the tale of the Aboke girls became one of the most widely known horror stories of the entire conflict . The CPA appealed to Pope John Paul II , who condemned the abductions , therefore drawing international attention to the incident and the situation in northern Uganda in general . On 7 March 1997 , President Museveni wrote to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan describing the plight of the Aboke girls . In June 1997 , Sr . Rachele and members of the CPA met with LRA commanders in Juba , Sudan . After originally denying that they held the girls , they then said they would release them if the Ugandan military declared a ceasefire . The Ugandan government rejected the proposal and stated that they were not responsible for anything that may happen to the girls . One of the most active CPA members has been Angelina Atyam , mother of Aboke girl Charlotte . Sr . Rachele and Ms . Atyam have , between the two of them , met the UN Special representative for children and armed conflicts , Olara Otunnu , then - U . S . First Lady Hillary Clinton , Kofi Annan , Yoweri Museveni , the Pope , members of the European Parliament , former South African President Nelson Mandela , Libyan President Muammar al - Gaddafi , Sudanese President Omar al - Bashir , and Zimbabwe an President Robert Mugabe , as well as numerous diplomats of other nations . The Lord ' s Resistance Army continues to operate in Uganda , as well as Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo , attacking civilians and abducting youth . While the profile of the conflict has been raised since a 2002 government offensive into southern Sudan , a 2005 poll of humanitarian aid professionals named it to be the second most " forgotten " humanitarian emergency in the world . The leaders of the LRA were indicted in 2005 for war crime s and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court , though others note that the indictments complicate the sporadic attempts at negotiations . A 2006 study estimated that 66 , 000 children and youth had been abducted over the course of the 20 - year conflict . On March 14 , 2009 , Catherine Ajok , the last of the abducted Aboke girls still held by the rebels , returned to Uganda . Ajok escaped during the Garamba offensive against the LRA , and made her way to a UPDF base in Dungu in DRC Congo . She returned with her 21 - month - old baby , whom she said was fathered by Joseph Kony .