Kakurungu and former LRA commander Capt. Ray Apire chat with the returnees

By Dennis Ojwee

NINE LRA who returned last month after spending 13 years in captivity have appealed for assistance from the Government to resume their education.

Edisa Adong, 60, from Lacek-Ocot, an aunt to Michael Anywar, 26, said she was pleased with the return of her nephew.

“I did not dream that my nephew was still alive in the bush. This is God’s mercy. We shall organise a ceremony to welcome him back home,” she said.
Anywar, who was abducted in 1998 while in Primary Five in Atanga sub-county in Pader district, urged the Government to help him return to school.

“If the Government can pay my fees, I will go back to study from P5 so that I can become like my friends who were not abducted,” said Anywar, who appeared to be in pain from an old bullet wound on his right leg.

The return of the abductees brings to 51 the number of LRA combatants who have escaped since July.

By October, 40 captives had fled from the LRA camps. The returnees, who escaped from the LRA hideouts in the Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, said they were first received by the Congolese army at Faradge before being transported to the UPDF 4th Division headquarters in Gulu.

The northern UPDF spokesman, Capt. Ronald Kakurungu, said the army would cooperate with regional forces to repatriate the children who are still in LRA captivity.