Uganda Receives Former LRA Captives and Children Linked to Joseph Kony

Ugandan authorities have received two women formerly held captive by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), along with several children linked to rebel leader Joseph Kony, at the UPDF Airbase in Entebbe after their repatriation from the Central African Republic.

The Acting Public Relations Officer of the UPDF, Col Chris Magezi, said the returnees were received by the Chief of Defence Intelligence and Security, Maj Gen Richard Otto, after being flown in from Bangui.

The women were identified as Ikol Grace, 33, a Ugandan who was abducted in 2003 at the age of 10 from Amuria District, and Aniyessi Teregina, also 33, a South Sudanese national abducted in 2006 at age 13 from Yambio in Western Equatoria State.

“Ikol returned with her two children, Ayuma Maria, 8, and Oryema Bosco, 2, while Aniyessi arrived with one of Kony’s orphaned children aged two years,” Magezi said in a statement released on Friday.

The women were part of a group of eight wives and 13 children who escaped from LRA captivity in January this year after their hideout was reportedly attacked by an unidentified armed group in a remote area south of Darfur near the borders of the Central African Republic, Sudan, and South Sudan.

“The other women, who are citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, together with the children, were handed over to their respective families in their home countries,” Magezi added.

He also said Ms Aniyessi will later be assisted to return to South Sudan and reunite with her relatives.

The repatriation highlights continued regional efforts to trace, rescue, and rehabilitate former LRA captives more than two decades after the rebel group terrorised communities across northern Uganda and neighbouring countries.

Although the LRA’s activities significantly declined following sustained military operations, remnants of the group are still believed to operate in isolated parts of the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Security officials said many of those returning from captivity require psychosocial support, medical treatment, and assistance to reintegrate into society after spending years in rebel-controlled territories.

According to UPDF records, more than 150 former LRA captives, including some of Kony’s wives and children, were repatriated to Uganda from the Central African Republic in 2023 and 2024 after escaping.

Human rights activists and rehabilitation experts have repeatedly called for increased support for survivors, noting that many endured forced marriages, armed conflict, and years of displacement.

Joseph Kony, the elusive LRA commander wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, remains at large despite years of regional and international military operations aimed at capturing him.