Ugandan Community leaders record “come home” messages that are then broadcast to the LRA via FM radio or speakers that are mounted on helicopters and flown over the jungle
Last week two individuals independently defected from Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the Central African Republic.
On January 6, a young Central African mother came out of the bush near her home community, Fodé, with her two sons who are just nine months and three years old. She was abducted by the LRA in 2010 near Agoumar, CAR, at approximately fifteen years of age– making her an estimated eighteen years old at the time of her escape. She reportedly tried to leave the group at some point during her second pregnancy, but was rejected by the village she attempted to surrender to. While the details of her escape are still unclear, she managed to make her way close to Fodé. She and her children have returned safely home.
Several days later, on January 10, a 38-year-old Ugandan male combatant surrendered on the bank of the Ngouangoua river in Djemah, CAR. He had been with the LRA for 20 years. After hearing Invisible Children “come home” radio messaging, he decided to escape the group. He walked six days through southeast CAR before he was able to surrender. After being received in Djemah, he was handed over to the UPDF (Ugandan military) in Obo where he remains for now.
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Thank you to everyone who has donated or fundraised in 2013 for Invisible Children’s programs in central Africa. Your support is essential to making escapes like these possible. We will continue doing our best work to encourage more safe surrenders until there is zero LRA.
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