By Oketch Bitek

THE Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) chief Joseph Kony is a very fast runner whose speed has always helped him to escape when attacked, an escapee has said.

Stella Acan, who was abducted by LRA fighters in 2003 and returned last month, said Kony usually runs fastest, leaving behind his fighters, wives and children when attacked.

That is how he escaped when the UPDF hit his base in the Garamba jungles in Congo last year, Acan said.

“Much as he knew and told us about the impending attack by a combined force of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and southern Sudan, Kony was very fast in taking off when the first bombardment by an aircraft hit his camp.”

She said running fast whenever faced with an enemy fire power has been Kony’s way of escape right from the time when they were still in Sudan.

Acan was abducted in 2003 and forced to become wife to be an LRA commander, Charles Ocan, who fathered her two-year-old child.

After Ocan was killed during the Garamba attack, Acan was given to another fierce commander, Okello Kalalang, who also died in battle this year.

Acan is six months pregnant with Kalalang’s  child. “Being a wife to the commanders made me able to know certain things like Kony running away from attacks, while his fighters exchange fire to enable him to get as far away as possible,” she added.

Acan says Kony was very bitter when his 15-year-old beloved son Salim was killed in one of the many attacks.

She added that the rate at which LRA fighters are giving themselves in to DR Congo and Ugandan forces could easily leave the rebel leader without manpower to sustain the war and survive.

The latest defector was Lt. Col. Charles Arop, who gave himself in to the joint military forces in the DR Congo a few days ago, according to the UPDF spokesman Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye.

In 2002, Kony outpaced a UPDF soldier who came face-to-face with him during an attack on his base in Sudan. Instead the army captured Kony’s kaunda suit, according to an army statement released then.