One of the returnees, 33-year-old Ugandan national Ikol Grace, arrived with her two children, Ayuma Maria, aged 8, and Oryema Bosco, aged 2. Grace was reportedly abducted in 2003 at the age of 10 from Amuria District by the LRA.
The Government of Uganda has repatriated two women formerly held in captivity by the rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), together with several children linked to notorious rebel leader Joseph Kony, from the Central African Republic (CAR).
According to a press release issued by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces Department of Defence Public Information on May 22, 2026, the women and children were received at the UPDF Airbase in Entebbe after being flown in from Bangui, CAR.
The group was escorted back to Uganda by the Chief of Defence Intelligence and Security, Richard Otto.
One of the returnees, 33-year-old Ugandan national Ikol Grace, arrived with her two children, Ayuma Maria, aged 8, and Oryema Bosco, aged 2. Grace was reportedly abducted in 2003 at the age of 10 from Amuria District by the LRA.
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Also repatriated was South Sudanese national Aniyessi Teregina, 33, who was abducted in 2006 at the age of 13 from Yambio in Western Equatoria State, South Sudan. She arrived carrying one of Kony’s orphaned children aged two years.
Military authorities said Teregina will later be facilitated to return to her home country.
According to the UPDF, the women were among a larger group of eight of Kony’s wives and 13 children who escaped from captivity in January this year after their camp was attacked by an unidentified armed group south of Darfur near the borders of CAR, Sudan, and South Sudan.
The statement added that other women from the Democratic Republic of Congo and CAR, together with their children, were reunited with their families in their respective countries.
The UPDF further revealed that more than 150 former LRA captives, including some of Kony’s wives and children, were returned to Uganda from CAR in 2023 and 2024 after escaping from rebel captivity.
The press release was signed by Chris Magezi, the Acting Director of Defence Public Information at the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs.