Ex-LRA combatants safe in Uganda - PM Nabbanja

The Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja has said former Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) combatants wishing to return home with their families are assured of safety and will peacefully be reintegrated back into the community.
"I want to assure our brothers and sisters from Central African Republic (CAR) that these are our children, our grandchildren and they are going to be given all the support they need to live happily in their country," she said.

Ms Nabbanja made the remarks while welcoming back the final group of 61 former LRA combatants and their family members (15 men, 14 women and 32 children) from the Central Africa Republic on Thursday at the Uganda People’s Defence Airbase in Entebbe.

"We still have the other groups in Nakasongola. They have been here for two months now. We are yet to integrate them in the community. The ministry for Northern Uganda is under my office. We are going to use all the support that we have to reintegrate them together with the community," she said.

The minister of defense and veterans affairs, Mr Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja said Thursday they had 67 people but two parents and their four children opted to stay Central African Republic where LRA rebel group is believed to be operating from.

The CAR state minister in charge of disarmament, demobilization, reintegration and resettlement (DDRR), Jean Willybiro Sako said a combined effort by both governments, NGOs and MONUSCO enabled the group that had settled in hard to reach areas in CAR, surrounded by various armed groups fighting the CAR government, to return home in Uganda.
The chairperson Acholi Parliamentary Group (APG), Kilak North MP Mr Anthony Akol said the return of the last batch of ex-fighters would bring joy to their families back home.

“I myself was abducted by the LRA and spent six months, three weeks and four days with them. Over 12,000 children were abducted from Acholi sub region. If you see the pockets coming back you realize we have lost a lot of people,” he said.

Mr Akol urged government to skill the ex-combatants as part of their rehabilitation and reintegration process to enable them earn a living and not languish in poverty.

LRA leader Joseph Kony, who remains at large, launched a bloody rebellion in northern Uganda more than three decades ago seeking to impose his own version of the Ten Commandments in northern Uganda, unleashing a campaign of terror that spread to several countries.

More than 100,000 people were killed and 60,000 children abducted during Kony's rebellion, which spread to Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.

The Hague-based ICC issued an arrest warrant for Kony in 2005 on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.