By Nathan Eyagu 

Entebbe — Two women who were abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) as children have returned home with their families after spending years in captivity under the rebel group led by Joseph Kony.

The women arrived Thursday at the UPDF Airbase Entebbe aboard a military flight from Bangui in the Central African Republic and were received by officials from the Uganda People's Defence Force.

The returnees included Ikol Grace, a 33-year-old Ugandan national who returned with her two children, Ayuma Maria, 8, and Oryema Bosco, 2. Also repatriated was Aniyessi Teregina, a 33-year-old South Sudanese national, who arrived carrying a two-year-old orphaned child associated with the LRA camp.

The group was escorted back to Uganda by Major General Richard Otto, the Chief of Defence Intelligence and Security.

According to military authorities, Grace was abducted in 2003 at the age of 10 from Amuria District in eastern Uganda, while Teregina was abducted in 2006 at the age of 13 from Yambio in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria State.

Ugandan officials said arrangements are being made to facilitate Teregina’s return to her home in South Sudan.

The repatriation follows the escape of eight women linked to Kony and 13 children earlier this year after an armed group attacked an LRA camp south of Darfur near the border region of CAR, Sudan, and South Sudan.

Military authorities said the other women, who are citizens of CAR and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have already been reunited with their families in their respective countries.

In a statement issued Friday, Colonel Chris Magezi, Acting Director of Defence Public Information at the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs, said the repatriation is part of ongoing efforts to support former captives and facilitate their reintegration into society.

Uganda has continued to receive former LRA captives fleeing rebel hideouts across Central Africa. Officials said more than 150 former captives, including some of Kony’s wives and children, were returned to Uganda from CAR between 2023 and 2024 after escaping LRA captivity.