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Bok Abudema |
Justin Moro and Chris Ochowun
THE first day of the new year started on a high note for the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) with the killing of senior LRA commander ‘Brigadier’ Bok Abudema.
“Abudema’s killing is a high target harvest. We are now looking at the tail end of the LRA. The remaining target is Joseph Kony,” said army spokesman Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye.
Abudema, an LRA historical, was effectively the number three in the rebel group, coming in seniority after Kony and his deputy, Okot Odhiambo.
An elite unit of the UPDF operating in the Central African Republic had been on Abudema’s trail for two days, Kulayigye said. In the first encounter with his group on Thursday, the unit killed one of Abudema’s escorts and wounded his wife. The commander’s luck ran out on Friday afternoon when he was killed north of Djema. Three abductees were rescued in the operation, the army said.
Abudema was heading towards Dafur in western Sudan to join Kony who is believed to be seeking protection with the Khartoum government.
“One pistol, a walkie talkie, a campus, a sub-machine gun and a brigadier’s pip were recovered from the body,” said Kulaigye.
The killing of Abudema, whose real name is Oringa Sisto, has decapitated the LRA command.
At least 305 LRA fighters, among them several commanders, have been killed since the joint offensive of the armies of Uganda, Congo and Southern Sudan a year ago, according to the defence ministry. Another 41 rebels were captured while 52 surrendered. In addition, the ministry said, over 500 abductees, many of them children, have been rescued.
“His death means the key senior commanders are gone and the group of fearless veteran fighters is depleted,’ said an intelligence source.
He reckons without Abudema, the LRA can no longer sustain any military confrontation. Abudema was blood thirsty and reportedly enjoyed killing as a sport. Often called Kony’s chief executor, he was the man who organised the capture and killing of the second-in-command, Vincent Otti, in October 2007.
He also killed Otti’s predecessor, Otti Lagony, in December 1999. Both were eliminated on Kony’s orders because they had advocated for signing the peace agreement and accepting the amnesty offer by the Government.
Even Kony reportedly feared Abudema and often kept him at a distance.
“On many occasions Abudema was upset that the International Criminal Court had not indicted him yet he had killed a lot more people (than those indicted),” said the source.
Ex-LRA fighter Opiyo Makasi confirmed that the slain commander was eager to please his boss and zealous in executing Kony’s orders.
“He was committing atrocities so that the ICC could include his name on the list of wanted LRA commanders. He always looked for popularity and favour from Kony by committing atrocities and implementing his orders,” Makasi said.
He added that Abudema, who was in his fifties, was a sadist who betrayed his colleagues and enjoyed seeing them fall out of Kony’s grace.
Gulu RDC Walter Ochora said the killing of Abudema is a big blow to the LRA since he was behind most of the killings ordered by Kony.
After having eliminated most of his commanders, the UPDF is now hunting down Kony as the last remaining target.
With the pressure piling up, the LRA leader has cut all direct communications with the outside world and has not been able to meet his commanders for months.
Who was Bok Abudema?
Abudema hails from Alero-Lamogi in Amuru district. He worked as a sugarcane cutter in Jinja during the Obote II regime.
When President Yoweri Museveni seized power in 1986, he joined the UPDA, a rebel group composed of soldiers of the former Okello regime which fought to overthrow the new Government.
He joined the LRA in 1988 after Kony was attacked by Museveni’s NRA at Bwobo railways station in Alero Sub-county, Gulu District. He was one of the few remaining LRA fighters who had joined the rebel group voluntarily.
Abudema was involved in many massacres in northern Uganda. In 1998, he took part in the killing of 11 LRA fighters who were accused of practicing witchcraft in Jebelein, the LRA camp in Southern Sudan.
In December 1999, after the passing of the Amnesty Act by the Ugandan Parliament, he executed the then number two, Otti Lagony, in their camp in Sudan on Kony’s orders.
In 2002, Abudema commanded a raid in Agoro Sub-county in Kitgum district in which several civilians and UPDF soldiers died and at least 100 people were abducted. The trading centre was looted and the military barracks burnt down.
In April 2002, he took part in a massacre of about 800 civilians at Katire village in Southern Sudan.
In 2003, he was among the senior LRA commanders who crossed into the Teso region in eastern Uganda and carried out horrific massacres and massive abductions.
On October 2, 2007, he took part in the execution of Kony’s deputy, Vincent Otti, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Abudema shouted the order ‘fire’ to the firing squad. Earlier, he had participated in arresting, torturing and humiliating Otti.
He was reportedly wounded during the December 14, 2008 air strikes on the LRA camps in eastern Congo under the joint offensive.
Published on: Saturday, 2nd January, 2010
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