The Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) has repatriated two women linked to Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony together with three children from the Central African Republic (CAR).
The group arrived at the UPDF Airbase in Entebbe on Thursday after being flown in from Bangui under the coordination of the Chief of Defence Intelligence and Security, Major General Richard Otto.
The returnees include Ugandan national Grace Ikol, 33, and her two children, Maria Ayuma, 8, and Bosco Oryema, 2. Also repatriated was South Sudanese national Aniyessi Teregina, 33, who arrived with one of Kony’s orphaned children aged two years.
According to the UPDF Acting Director Defence Public Information, Col. Chris Magezi, Ikol was abducted in 2003 at the age of 10 from Amuria District, while Teregina was abducted in 2006 at the age of 13 from Yambio in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria State.
“Eight of Kony’s 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,” Col. Magezi said in a statement.
He added that the other women, who are citizens of DR Congo and CAR, together with their children, were handed over to their respective families in their home countries.
Col. Magezi further revealed that Teregina will later be facilitated to return to South Sudan and reunite with her family.
The UPDF says the latest repatriation adds to previous efforts that have seen more than 150 former LRA captives, including some of Kony’s wives and children, returned to Uganda from CAR between 2023 and 2024 after escaping from rebel captivity.
Joseph Kony, the fugitive LRA leader, remains wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the group’s insurgency across Uganda and parts of Central Africa.
