The 12-year-old boy stabbed to death in a suburban street in Melbourne’s West earlier this month has been laid to rest before several hunder mourners.
St Mary’s Anglican Church in Sunbury, in the city’s northwest, was full on Friday as family and friends said goodbye to Chol Achiek, who was killed in a machete attack alongside his 15-year-old friend Dau Akueng in Cobblebank.
They watched on as a white coffin adorned with flowers carrying the 12-year-old left the church following a two hour service.
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Chol’s older sister Monica Achiek told the service that life looked so different from just a few weeks prior when she lost her little brother.
Family and friends gather at St Marys Anglican Church Sunbury for the funeral of Chol Achiek, 12, who was killed in a machete attack at Cobblebank. Picture: Andrew Henshaw
“I never thought I would be standing here, saying goodbye to my brother, Chol,” she told mourners.
“A part of me still thinks he’s going to walk in with his cheeky smile and act like nothing ever happened.”
Chol Achiek, the seventh child of an Australian-South Sudanese family tragically lost his life after a horrific machete attack that also claimed the life of his friends just streets away and minutes apart.
The pair were walking home from a basketball game on 6 September, a sport mourners heard Chol had an incredible passion for.
Several hundred mourners filled St Mary’s Anglican Church in Sunbury, in the city’s north west to say goodbye to Chol Achiek. Picture: Andrew Henshaw
Chol’s older sister Monica Achiek told the service that life looked so different from just a few weeks prior when she lost her little brother. Picture: Andrew Henshaw
Nile Warriors basketball club vice president Ayak Kuany read a tribute on behalf of the club where Chol played.
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“There’s a space missing in our trains now, the gap at the end of the bench, a name we wish we were still calling out during our games. We feel that absence every single time,” she said.
“You could feel the difference when he walked in the room.”
The service follows a series of sweeping raids across Melbourne’s western suburbs which resulted in eight arrests being made in relation to the incident.
Chol Achiek, the seventh child of an Australian-South Sudanese family, was killed in a machete attack that also claimed the life of his friend. Source: GoFundMe
Dau Akueng, 15, and his friend Chol Achiek, 12, were walking home from a basketball game when they were ambushed by a group of up to eight masked people wielding machetes and long-edged weapons.
The two boys died after the ambush, which happened in Cobblebank, near Melton, shortly before 8pm on September 6.
Five teenagers aged 15 and 16 and three men aged 18 and 19 have now been charged with murder.
Dau will be farewelled at a separate service on Saturday.
[SRC] https://au.news.yahoo.com/cobblebank-stabbing-victim-farewelled-084402787.html
