by Gladys Oroma
Today, a man named Dominic Ongwen is on trial before the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands. The 42 year old Ugandan is charged with committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Northern Uganda.
Ongwen is the only commander with the rebel group, The Lord’s Resistance Army, who is on trial before the ICC, but he wasn’t alone. From 1986 through 2017, over the course of more than 30 years, LRA rebels abducted tens of thousands of people, 20,000 of them children as young as five years old, and held them captive for years.
Life of the Law begins our 4-part series on Uganda. Reported by Gladys Oroma from Gulu, Uganda where she reports for local, national and international press, Gladys follows the stories of Beatrice and Samuel, two of the children abducted by the LRA. Throughout our series, Beatrice and Samuel share their experiences, from the nights of their abductions, through their years in captivity, their harrowing escapes and finally, their return home and their lives in Uganda, today.
