A group of former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) abductees who recently denounced rebellion and defected from the Central African Republic (CAR) jungles, have revealed a growing wish by the LRA leader Joseph Kony to have his children raised in a civilised environment.
Kony, whose LRA group is reportedly growing thinner and weaker, according to sources, has in the past four years offered to release his family members, who are mostly children, so that they can return home. Last Thursday, two former abductee women, also Kony’s wives, spoke to the Daily Monitor from a recuperation centre established by Actions for Rural Development (APRu), a DR Congo-based non-government organisation specialising in community reintegration and psychosocial support for victims of armed conflict.
According to them, Kony’s passion for active rebellion has dwindled over the years and he has always openly hinted at having his children and wives return to live in his home community. ‘Many of us women and children who belong to him (Kony) and a few other active commanders are encouraged to surrender once an opportunity strikes,’ one of the wives of DRC origin stated by telephone. In early April, the CAR government convened a strategic meeting that brought together the Ugandan and the DRC delegations and partners to plan for the repatriation of the former rebels and their family members. The meeting, according to sources, sought to strengthen coordination of the demobilisation process for surviving LRA combatants still present in the region, and was attended by Uganda People’s Defence Forces’ (UPDF’s) Maj Gen Richard Otto (head of mission) and Mr James Mutabazi, principal assistant secretary at the Defence ministry.
It also focused on the situation of ex-combatants and those associated with the LRA, located particularly in the areas of Bria, Ouandja-kotto, Mboki, Satema and Obo, as well as in South Sudan. The meeting examined the hurdles that the repatriation exercise now faces, including logistical and operational challenges hindering repatriation. At the time, a total of 22 returnees, including nine women and 13 children of Congolese, Ugandan, and South Sudan origin, had been registered at Invisible Children’s headquarters in Bangui. Another returnee woman, also a family member of Kony, who requested not to be named, explained, ‘Food is a big problem, and mostly we survive on vegetables and wild fruits, especially in that pocket between CAR and Sudan, because we lived there for some time and wild animals are scarce.’
According to her, difficulty in securing financial, medical, food and other material support to sustain the rebellion has made the group weaker, and women and children are most impacted. The two women and their children are part of the 15 former LRA abductees and fighters who defected from the group in the Darfur region in January 2026. This publication established that, upon their repatriation to CAR’s capital Bangui, they were transferred to Kinshasa by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Last week, the group was reportedly moved through Isiro Town in Haut-Uélé province to Faradje, where they were handed to Actions for Rural Development (APRu). Two of the 15 returnees, also wives of Joseph Kony, were received at the UPDF Airbase in Entebbe.
The two are identified as Grace Ikol, a Ugandan aged 33, and her two children (Maria Ayuma, 8, and Bosco Oryema, 2), and Aniyessi Teregina, a South Sudanese national aged 33, plus one of Kony’s children aged 2. In a statement, Col Chris Magezi, the acting director for public information at Ministry of Defence, said the five individuals were received and escorted to Uganda by the Chief of Defence Intelligence and Security (CDIS), Maj Gen Otto.
Ikol is said to have been abducted aged 10 in 2003 from Amuria District, while Aniyessi was abducted in 2006 aged 13 from Yambio, Western Equatorial State in South Sudan, and she will be facilitated to travel to her home in South Sudan in due course, Col Magezi stated. In an interview, Mr Jean-Claude Malitano, the APRu regional coordinator DRC, commended the repatriation success. ‘The return of these former captives is one key step towards peace building and stability in the countries affected by the LRA war. It is our prayer that the four affected countries increase their support towards this humanitarian effort,’ Mr Malitano said.