Fresh details have emerged revealing that two daughters of the elusive Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader, Joseph Kony, were held hostage for four months by Wagner Group mercenaries in the Central African Republic (CAR).
According to credible sources obtained by Vivid Voice News, Maisa Amu and Betty Akidi Lagum were abducted in March 2024 from Sam Ouandja, a northeastern town near the Sudan border. They were subsequently detained in the capital, Bangui, where they remained in captivity until July.
At the time of their capture, the two had reportedly defected from their father’s hideout and were attempting to surrender to the Central African Republic government. Their defection followed a similar move by Kony’s wife, Judith Acan, and his son, Pope Kony, who surrendered on March 19, 2024, as confirmed by a Ugandan security official familiar with the case.
The official, who spoke anonymously due to the sensitivity of the matter, disclosed that the Russian mercenaries held the daughters as bait, hoping to draw Kony out of hiding. He suggested that Wagner operatives were possibly motivated by the $5 million bounty on Kony, given their knowledge of his family ties.
“The reason, I think, the Russians wanted to keep the family was because they learnt that this was the immediate family of Kony. And, you know, the Russian mercenaries are very transactional. So, they thought that by keeping the family, Kony can come out and then they can cash in on the US$5 million, which is on Kony’s head,” he said.
Since 2013, the US Department of State has been offering a US$ 5-million bounty for any information leading to the arrest of Kony. According to him, the mercenaries released the captives after realizing they weren’t going to gain anything.
“…they held them from March last year up to almost four months before they found that it was a useless venture, they handed them over to the Central African Government and the Central African Government handed them over to Invisible Children,” he said.
He explained that although arrangements were in place to repatriate Kony’s wife and son to Uganda, the process was delayed for months due to the continued captivity of his two daughters by Russian mercenaries.
Eventually, after their release to the Central African Republic government and the humanitarian organization Invisible Children, the two daughters were reunited with their family members, who were under the care of Invisible Children in Bangui.
Challenges in repatriating Kony’s defected family members
Vivid Voice News has learned that the Ugandan government faced significant obstacles in its efforts to repatriate four defected family members of Joseph Kony from the Central African Republic (CAR) last year. The process was stalled when a CAR government official denied the presence of the defectors, complicating Uganda’s attempts to bring them home.
A delegation from the Office of the President, accompanied by Kony’s son Ali Saloongo—who had defected earlier in July 2021—traveled to CAR with four air tickets to facilitate the repatriation. However, they returned without the defectors. Following prolonged negotiations between Ugandan and CAR authorities, the defectors finally arrived in Uganda on February 28 via Entebbe Airport.
Their return was facilitated by Fulbert Gbangona Dabira, the Chief of Cabinet at CAR’s Ministry for Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration, and Repatriation (DDRR). The air tickets for their journey were funded by Pax Christi, an international non-governmental organization.
Currently, the four Kony family members are in Gulu City, where they are undergoing vocational training and rehabilitation alongside 129 former LRA returnees. Since December 2023, Pax Christi has been sponsoring their training in various vocational skills, preparing them for reintegration into society.
Meanwhile, the Acholi Cultural Institution has urged the Ugandan government to ensure ritual cleansing for former LRA fighters. During a recent engagement with officials from the President’s Office and the Office of the Prime Minister, Deputy Paramount Chief Martin Otinga Yai Atuka II emphasized the importance of traditional cleansing rites. He warned that without these rituals, returnees could face psychological distress, stigma, and even premature death due to lingering “bad omens.”
Kony’s forces continue to diminish
Recent security reports indicate that Joseph Kony’s fighting force has dwindled significantly, with only around 60 fighters remaining as of last month. However, the group’s numbers have further declined, as five fighters from the Central African Republic reportedly defected last week, further weakening the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Although Kony’s exact whereabouts remain unknown, intelligence sources suggest he is leading a small group of loyal fighters along the border between Sudan and the Central African Republic. In August last year, the Ugandan army launched an offensive on LRA bases in the eastern town of Sam Ouandja, destroying key facilities and seizing military equipment.
Kony’s brutal insurgency against President Yoweri Museveni’s government began in 1986, leading to the deaths of over 100,000 people, the displacement of 1.5 million into internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, and the abduction of up to 100,000 children, according to United Nations (UN) estimates.
He remains one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, with the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeking him on 36 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, allegedly committed in Northern Uganda between July 1, 2002, and December 31, 2005.
