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ROY — Ben Aikuli has finally found peace. To do so required an eight-year journey of survival that took him 8,600 miles from his home.
Ben is from the city of Bunia in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a city and a country ravaged by one of the deadliest wars in world history.
The Second Congo War has claimed the lives of more than 5 million Congolese, many from disease and starvation.
There were many conflicts within the war that took place between rival tribes in parts of Congo.
Inter-ethnic massacres between the minority Hema and the majority Hendu tribes in the Ituri region of Congo has claimed the lives of 50,000 people since 1999 and displaced half a million people from their homes.
Ben is a victim of that conflict.
“When they get angry at each other they burn houses and try to kill everyone they see that wasn’t in their tribe,” Ben says.
Ben was 5 years old and attending school when fighting broke out in the area. He fled the school and eventually met up with his older brother.
When they finally reached home they discovered it on fire with no sign of their family, including both parents.
They gathered a few items of clothing that were left on their lawn and fled to safety with the help of a neighbor.
When they get angry at each other they burn houses and try to kill everyone they see that wasn't in their tribe.
–Ben Aikuli
That is when they began their forest journey.
For three years they wandered through the rain forest and from town to town, hoping to find their parents.
Each day they begged for food and shelter along the way.
“We just never stopped going, for some reason,” he remembers. “We were just going and going. We didn’t know where we were going to stop for sure.”
Eventually they met a woman in the town of Mahagi, Congo, who owned a restaurant that agreed to take them in. She provided food and shelter in exchange for help around the restaurant with things like cleaning and dishes. They stayed with her for more than a year.
She helped them register with the United Nations and had their picture taken as part of a program that helps children displaced by the war find their parents. They never received an answer. The UN planned to return the boys to Bunia but, fearing their parents were dead and home destroyed, they left and continued their journey.
They walked almost 70 miles from Mahagi to Arua, Uganda, with hopes of finding a refugee program.
That is when they began their refugee life.
They were given a little grass house to sleep in and tools to cut grass and cook with. There were many days where they went without food, but they were grateful for what they had.
“We didn’t worry as much because we had a place to sleep,” he says.
Ben and his brother spent five years in that refugee camp in Uganda still hoping that the UN would deliver good news about their parents.
“They didn’t ever find our parents,” he says.
They decided in 2010 to apply and interview for a program that would place them with foster families in other countries. They first tried Canada but Ben’s brother was too old, so the next hope was the United States.
They ended up in Utah — a move that would change Ben’s life forever.
He was taken in by a foster family that lives in Roy and began attending Roy high school in 2010.
“It’s a really great thing for me," he says about his move to Utah. “With everything I’ve seen and went through, I think that with the football team and the school I’ve had the greatest experience.”
Ben is a member of the Roy soccer team and football team, where he is the starting varsity kicker.
On Aug. 30, 2013, the Royals were tied with rival Weber at 14 with 3 seconds left in regulation. Ben was called on to kick a game-winning field goal. He lined up and drilled a 33-yard attempt down the middle of the uprights. Fans rushed the field and he was lifted in the air by his teammates.
“I just started running because I knew it was going in,” he remembers. “It was probably the greatest thing I’ve done here in the U.S., for sure.”
Ben has been a part of Roy’s most successful football teams since the mid-'70s. He has found a home here in Utah and looks forward to continuing his education in college.
It’s a remarkable story of survival, but it doesn’t stop there.
Ben received a call from his brother on Mother’s Day with news he never thought he would hear.
“He said, 'You’ll never believe what I just heard.' He said they did find our parents. I said, ‘Are you for real?’ and he’s like, 'Yeah. The Red Cross guy just called and said he found our parents. They came back.' ”
His parents have since rebuilt their home and the family farm. Ben did lose one sibling in the war but he is grateful that his parents are alive and he looks forward to the reunion after believing they were dead.
He recently spoke with his mother over the phone for the first time in 12 years.
“I couldn’t hear much of what she was saying because she was crying,” he says. “She said they did our funeral back home because they never thought we would make it.”
Ben is working toward becoming a U.S. Citizen. Once that happens he will travel to Congo for the long-awaited reunion with his parents. Until then he hopes to help the Roy football and soccer teams win games before graduating.
Instead of living with bitterness and anger because of the circumstances of his childhood, he feels blessed.
“I just look back and I’m very grateful for that and how I’m here,” he says. “I’m happy.”
