Earlier this month six Ugandans escaped the LRA and returned home to Uganda, including two male combatants, three children and their brave mother. This is their story.
Tabu Simon was abducted from his home in Kitgum, Uganda in 1998 at the age of 13 after the LRA killed his father. He has spent the last 16 years in the bush as a LRA combatant. Beginning last year, Simon started seeing Invisible Children defection fliers and hearing ‘come home’ messages on the radio. One night, when his whole group was listening to UBC radio—Invisible Children’s partner station in Uganda—he and his comrades heard recent defector Opono Opondo telling those in the bush to come home. He remembers hearing Opono talk about his defection process and what life is like at home in Uganda. Simon said in that moment, people have to make their own decisions; some of the leadership in the group were telling lower ranking combatants that it was just propaganda, but it got Simon thinking.
He said that making the decision to defect was a long process for him. Simon fathered four children while in the LRA, one who was already rescued and taken back to Uganda. Simon said this child was 9 years old and in school, and that he wanted to be reunited with her. He had his other three children with Grace Achora, also abducted from Uganda, while she was in captivity in central Africa. Simon said that he wanted these children to be able to grow up in Uganda. He wasn’t sure if it was safe for him to defect and was still fearful of being killed by the UPDF (the Ugandan military) when he decided to escape the LRA, but he thought at least they would take his and Grace’s children to Uganda.
So on March 8th Simon gathered Grace and his three kids— Sally* age 6, Jane* age 3, and Faith* just 9 months old— and tried to escape his group of 30 LRA that were near Nzako, Central African Republic. Right before leaving Simon tried to raid one of his group’s stockpiles of food so that he and his family would be able to survive several days in the bush while they were looking for a community to surrender to. But before Simon could get away he was caught by senior leaders of his group. He was tied up for three days and given 120 lashes as punishment. Not long after he was released, Simon again attempted to escape with his family and a central African he convinced to come with them as an escort. This time they were successful.
Simon had formed something of a relationship with Seleka forces in the nearby community, Nzako. He, Grace, the three children, and their escort found Nzako 11km from where they escaped and Simon surrendered to Seleka forces there. The Seleka then called the US military who helped return the central African to his home, and, in collaboration with the UPDF, facilitated the repatriation of the five Ugandans.
But when Simon escaped, he left someone behind. Ocan Denis, was Simon’s closest friend in the LRA. He too was abducted from Kitgum, Uganda five years after Simon when he was just 14 years old. Denis has been a combatant in the LRA for the past 11 years, but it wasn’t until 2011 that Simon and Denis were transferred into the same group.
The night Simon successfully escaped, Denis had been tasked with gathering food for their group. When he returned from foraging, Simon and the others were gone. Denis said “Simon and I were great friends, like family”, so when he returned and found that Simon was not there, he became nervous that the leaders in the group would suspect something of Denis and preemptively punish him so he made up his mind to leave. Just days after Simon defected, Denis was put on guard duty which meant he had to patrol the perimeter of their camp. That night , when Denis was sure he was alone, he too escaped. He walked through the night before finding motorcyclists on a road who he was able to surrender to. They took him the their local leader in Nzako and called the UPDF who picked him up and took him back to Uganda.
I met up with Simon and Denis in Gulu, Uganda. They had been given new clothes and medical treatment. Simon’s kids were playing with each other under a tree near where we sat and talked. Simon said that after his father was killed by the LRA, he lost his mother too. He said that when he returns to Kitgum he’ll be staying with him uncle who still lives there. Denis still has his whole family in Kitgum, and after 11 years with the LRA he is excited to go home to them.
Simon said that while he was in the bush he didn’t think much about what his children’s future would look like. But now that he his back in Uganda he wants to make sure that his three children he escaped with are able to get an education. He said that he was going to be reunited with his daughter, who had already been rescued from the LRA and was in school in northern Uganda. Once back in Uganda, Simon realized that this new life brings with it a lot of responsibility, but he hopes that he is able to get work to sustain himself and pay for his children’s school fees. His eyes were tired, but resolute.
While there are a lot of factors that go into a LRA combatant’s choice to escape, we are thankful that Invisible Children’s defection programming was influential in Simon, Grace, and Denis’s courageous decisions. Simon and Denis talked at great length about Invisible Children’s defection messages they had seen and heard in central Africa, and Simon was eager to give us more ideas for reaching individuals still in the LRA. Both Denis and Simon recorded ‘Come Home’ messaging of their own and soon, just like Opono, their messages will be broadcasted into central Africa, encouraging others to follow in their footsteps.
*Names of children have been changed to protect their identities
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