KAMPALA – The Ugandan fugitive warlord Joseph Kony is critically ill and is suffering from stroke in a jungle hideout in the Central African Republic, intelligence sources said on Tuesday.
The leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a guerrilla group that formerly operated in Uganda, Kony who is being hunted by four-nation military force has reportedly fell ill on early September after hours of trek near Agoumar, a village close to Uganda border, according to a senior Ugandan intelligence official who asked not to be named.
“He’s in a very poor health now, and its hard for him to smuggle doctors into that jungle to treat him.” He told Alleastafrica.
Kony was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.
In 2005 but has evaded capture by Ugandan army. He has since been subject to an Interpol Red Notice at the request of the ICC since 2006, but his group stopped operating in Uganda the Juba peace talks in 2006, and moved his militia to the Democratic Republic of Congo, or Central African Republic or South Sudan.
For years, a coalition of regional forces backed by US advisors has been hunting the rebel leader who has been implicated in abduction and recruitment of child soldiers; he had subsequently evaded capture, making him one of the most elusive rebel leaders.
The Ugandan military has attempted to kill Kony throughout the insurgency. In Uganda’s attempt to track Kony down, former LRA combatants have been enlisted to search remote areas of the Central African Republic, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo where he was last seen.
In 2013, the Obama administration offered rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest, transfer, or conviction of Kony, Ongwen, before the United States announced they would deploy at least four CV-22 Ospreys and refuelling planes, and 150 Air Force special forces personnel to assist in the capture of Kony.
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