[3/4] My experience as a child soldier shaped how I saw the happenings in my home country. Conflict was a key element for me to be a human rights defender, witnessing villages being burned down, relatives killed, and women raped. These violations motivated me to do something to stop them. To halt these incidents, I had to find like-minded people who shared the same goals. I sought out activists and organizations fighting for peace, justice, and accountability for the victims and human rights in Sudan. I provided free legal aid to internally displaced persons and documented human rights violations in my hometown and the Darfur region as a whole. At some point, we conducted investigations into these violations to support the work of the International Criminal Court. Unfortunately, we were arrested and detained. Personally, I was arrested, released, and then arrested again. I don’t remember the exact period I spent in jail, but it was long, and my colleagues were severely tortured. In 2009, during the aftermath of the indictment of Sudanese President Omar Bashir by the International Criminal Court, some colleagues and I had to flee the country. With the support of DefendDefenders and the leadership of the late Osman Hummaida, we established our organization, the African Centre for Peace and Justice Studies, in Uganda. Our aim was to reconnect and support our colleagues who were left behind in Sudan. It is a Sudanese organization based in Uganda, enabling us to continue our advocacy work concerning the situation in Sudan at the time, as well as monitoring and reporting on human rights violations.
(Nsambya, Kampala)