Deng and Mading: when a former child soldier faced the man who beat him

What happened when former child soldier Deng Thiak Adut was unexpectedly reunited with the man who used to beat him?

Deng Thiak Adut: one of tens of thousands of children who have been conscripted to fight in the Second Sudanese Civil War. Source: SBS

Journalist: Jodie Noyce

Photographer: Andrew Quilty

Thousands of boys were taken from their parents and forced to fight in a war between government forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, where they were routinely tortured by superior officers. 

Deng Thiak Adut was one of these boys. 

Deng has lived in Australia since 1998. Around 10 years ago, while at his brother's house in Sydney, Deng was unexpectedly reunited with one of his superior officers.

"But deep inside my heart I thought, 'This was a man who beat me on a daily basis'."