Entebbe, Uganda: Two women formerly held in captivity by fugitive Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony and several children were on Friday repatriated to Uganda from the Central African Republic (CAR) in the latest breakthrough in ongoing regional efforts to dismantle remnants of the rebel group.
The group was received at the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) Airbase in Entebbe after being flown in from Bangui aboard a military-arranged flight coordinated by Ugandan security authorities on Friday, May 22.
According to the acting UPDF Spokesperson, Col Chris Magezi, the returnees were escorted back to Uganda by the Chief of Defence Intelligence and Security (CDIS), Maj Gen Richard Otto.
“Two young women and wives to Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony were yesterday received at the UPDF Airbase in Entebbe after being flown in from Bangui, the Central African Republic (CAR),” Col Magezi said on Friday.
Those repatriated include Ugandan national Ikol Grace, 33, alongside her two children, Ayuma Maria, 8, and Oryema Bosco, 2.
Also returned was South Sudanese national Aniyessi Teregina, 33, who arrived holding one of Kony’s orphaned children aged two years.
Military authorities said Ikol was abducted by the LRA in 2003 at the age of 10 from Amuria District in Eastern Uganda, while Teregina was kidnapped in 2006 at age 13 from Yambio in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria region.
Col Magyezi said arrangements are underway to facilitate Teregina’s eventual return to South Sudan.
According to defence authorities, the women and children were among a larger group of eight wives and 13 children linked to Kony who reportedly escaped captivity in January this year after their camp came under attack by an unidentified armed group operating south of Darfur near the tri-border area of CAR, Sudan and South Sudan.
“In all, 8 Kony wives and 13 children escaped from captivity in January this year after their camp was attacked by an armed group south of Darfur near the border of CAR, Sudan, and South Sudan,” Magezi noted.
“The other women, Congolese and CAR citizens, along with their children, were handed over to their families in the respective countries,” he added.
The latest repatriation adds to the growing number of former LRA captives returning from remote hideouts across Central Africa as the once-feared rebel movement continues to weaken after years of regional military pressure.
Col Magezi said more than 150 former LRA captives, including some of Kony’s wives and children, had already been returned to Uganda from CAR between 2023 and 2024 after escaping rebel captivity.
The Lord’s Resistance Army, which waged a brutal insurgency across northern Uganda for nearly two decades, became notorious for mass abductions, killings and the forced recruitment of children as fighters and porters.
Although largely pushed out of Uganda by military operations in the mid-2000s, remnants of the group continued operating across parts of Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Joseph Kony, who remains one of Africa’s most wanted fugitives, is still believed to be hiding somewhere within the remote border regions of Central Africa despite years of international manhunts.
Security analysts say continued defections and escapes by wives, children and former fighters signal the gradual collapse of the remaining LRA network.
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