Joseph Kony is a household name in Uganda and just mentioning this name reignites memories of suffering and trauma to those who suffered several atrocities orchestrated by his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) under his command.
It’s almost 15 years since the guns went silent in Northern Uganda after a long battle to end the the war in the region. Kony escaped with his group to South Sudan and later to the Central African Republic when the fire was too much for him to contain.
Several of his men surrendered to the army in Uganda, some were captured. Dominic Ongwen underwent trial and sentenced by the Hague-based International Criminal Court while Thomas Kwoyelo is also undergoing trial at the International Crimes Division in Uganda.
The warlord Joseph Kony was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague for war crime and crimes against humanity in 2005 after unleashing a decade-long reign of terror and he has been in hiding for now almost 20 years.
The now 63 year old joseph Kony is a born of Northern Uganda, Gulu district but showered a conflict to his tribesmen and the war spilled to other places as far as Lango, Teso and Karamoja regions before running to DRC, South Sudan and now Central African Republic for hiding.
In 2022, the US Department of State placed a $5million [around Shs19billion] bounty for any one who leads to the arrest of Joseph Kony to face charges in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Since then no one had ever come out with any information leading to his arrest and continues to leave at large in the jungles.
According to Rolling Stone News, Russian Wagner Group mercenaries in the Central African Republic came close to capturing the notorious warlord but reports suggest he managed to escape despite both aerial and ground assault rained on his camp in the village of Yemen found in the jungles of Central African Republic.
The Wagner Group which has huge presence in several countries in Africa reportedly closed in on his in a remote corner of the Central African republic earlier this month. Sources say Wargner’s pursuit of Kony began when 14 defectors from Kony’s LRA surrendered to a group posing as Central African Republic Government forces at the end of last month. The men were, in fact, a Chadian Armed group affiliated with Wagner, which often partners with local militias to support it’s operations.
Multiple sources independently describe to the Rolling Stone a bloody near-capture of Kony by the Russian mercenaries working for the Wagner Group. A social media post affiliated with Wagner also confirms some aspects of the group’s interest in capturing Kony.
Sources further reveal that after taking the defectors into custody, Wagner forces attacked the village of Yemen, where Kony had recently pitched camp and which is the site of a large marijuana plantation that funds an array of regional militant groups.
Locals say that Kony’s camp was with in 10 miles of the village. Details of the attack were reported by locals who described the firefight that killed between two to eight people, the source further told the Rolling Stone publication.
“[Wagner] went there with helicopter, two helicopter, and they fired down at [Kony’s camp]” said Ousmane, the UPC Commander.
The airborne assault was followed by a ground operation, which led to a sustained firefight. “As they [Wagner] know the bush well, they did a lot of damage, they burned the entire village of Yemen. There are small villages around it, they burned all those village. All but Kony was not among the fallen
This amounts to hot pursuit [in] the African bush’-says a U.S source familiar with efforts to capture the warlord. “The U.S military got with 72 hours of Kony. Wagner may be even closer.”
With a history of disappearing into the bush, reports indicated that Kony fled towards Sudan. Afrique Media Tv, a Krelin linked media that serves as a primary source for information about Wagner activities in Africa, has not discussed the incident or the mercenary group’s apparent interest in Kony.
“But on Sunday April 21st, a Telegram Channel known to be used by Wagner posted a statement saying the Mercenary group had conducted an operation freeing “14 children enslaved by the Rebel group for eight years”
FULL STATEMENT OF THE OPERATION IS ATTACHED IN THE SCREENGRAB BELOW
One former Military officer familiar with US operations targeting Kony admits that the Russian Operation shows the mercenaries are on the right track to bring Kony to book after decades of hiding and searching for him.
‘It’s not the end of the Kony Story, but it’s a continuation -and Wagner may give us the ending”-the officer said
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