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Ugandan LRA survivors back ICC charges against fugitive leader Joseph Kony
Survivors of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda have expressed support for the International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision to confirm 39 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity against the group's elusive leader, Joseph Kony. The charges, announced Thursday, include murder, rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, and the conscription of child soldiers-yet Kony, indicted since 2005, remains at large, reportedly hiding in the Central African Republic (CAR).
Decades of brutality and unfulfilled justice
The LRA, founded by Kony in the late 1980s, claimed its mission was to establish a government in northern Uganda based on the Ten Commandments. Instead, the group became infamous for mutilating victims-severing limbs or parts of faces-and systematically abducting children for use as soldiers or sex slaves. By 2005, military pressure forced the LRA into neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and CAR, where remnants now engage in poaching and illegal mining.
Evelyn Amon, abducted at age 11 and held for 11 years as one of Kony's wives, told the BBC she struggles with lasting trauma. "I cannot be happy like other women who went to school," the 42-year-old said. "I need justice for women who went through abduction like me." Under LRA control, she forgot her birth name, known only as "Betty Achol" by her captors. Amon and other survivors demand Kony's arrest and trial to unlock ICC compensation.
"The victims who suffered can't wait-some of these victims are already dying."
Patrick Ochieng, 28, born in LRA captivity
Generational scars of a forgotten conflict
Patrick Ochieng, born in captivity after his mother's abduction and sexual assault, spent his childhood in LRA forest barracks. At age five, he watched rebels execute his mother for attempting to escape with him and his twin sister. "She tried to escape with us," he recalled, "but the policy was clear: if you try to escape and you're caught, they finish you."
The LRA's nearly two-decade insurgency in northern Uganda left over 100,000 dead, displaced 2.5 million, and abducted between 60,000-100,000 children. Even displaced-persons camps-intended as safe havens-became targets. In 2004, LRA fighters massacred over 70 civilians, including women and children, in Lukodi village near Gulu. Muhammad Olanya, 17 at the time, described the attack: "We heard drumbeats, then whistles-those were bullets." He escaped only after collapsing from exhaustion on a roadside, rescued by a Ugandan soldier.
Failed peace and a fading manhunt
Ugandan government efforts to negotiate peace collapsed in 2008 when Kony demanded immunity for himself and his commanders. A 2012 social media campaign briefly revived global attention, and the U.S. offered a $5 million reward for his capture in 2013. But joint U.S.-Ugandan military operations ceased in 2017 without success. Survivors now pin their hopes on the ICC's renewed legal push-though Kony's trial cannot proceed until he is arrested and extradited to The Hague.
What's next
The ICC's confirmation of charges, conducted in absentia, signals determination to hold Kony accountable despite his fugitive status. For survivors like Amon and Ochieng, the decision reignites fragile hope-but time is running out. "Some of these victims are already dying," Ochieng warned. Without Kony's capture, justice remains deferred for a region still grappling with the LRA's legacy of violence.
