RAMSON

Over 60 former LRA rebels and abductees have been repatriated and returned home, some for the first time.

The group is comprised of Men, women, and children and was received by the commander air force, Lt. Gen. Akidi Charles at the airbase in Entebbe.

The group will be sent into rehabilitation before they are sent into the community.

An aircraft carrying the group touched Air Force base at about 3 P.m. Ready to receive them were members of the air force led by their commander, Lt Gen. Charles Akidi

One by one, they moved out of the aircraft, men, women, and children with some having to be carried especially the children.

The group is composed of Ugandans, south Sudanese and Congolese picked from Central African Republic, majority of these are from northern Uganda specifically Acholi.

It's estimated that 12, 000 children were abducted during the 20-year LRA war and only a handful have returned. Only 141 people have been repatriated, the first group arrived in Uganda in July. These have been camping in Mboki in the Central African Republic where they sought refuge after defecting from their commander Joseph Kony about 9 years ago.

These were received on Thursday evening in a special function held at the airport, the function was graced by several ministers in Uganda as well as cabinet members from the Central African Republic.

Col. Deo Akiiki Updf deputy spokesperson says that Uganda withdrew from the Central African Republic many years ago to mark the end of the LRA war.

The repatriation program / regional coordinator Lyandro Komakech says this has been based on the 2008 Juba peace agreement although it wasn't formally signed by Joseph Kony.

He notes that the process took so long to take off with quite negations summoning this year between member states.

The former rebels are said to have sought a guarantee that they wouldn't be arrested once they came out of the Central African Republic, a place that had housed them for 9 years.

Komakech describes this as a tentative end to the LRA. He says there are some elements of the rebel group that are still adamant about surrendering for repatriation and reintegration.

In her remarks, the prime minister of Uganda Robinah Nabbanja assured the returnees of government support in terms of education, technical support, and finances for them to easily fit in the community.

These together with their colleagues who came in July and August have been urged to change their lifestyle to fit in the community where they are going to be reintegrated.

The government has also been asked to see that the children are accorded education for the betterment of their lives.

This is the third and last group of former LRA rebels to be repatriated to Uganda. It's believed that this marks the end of the operations of the LRA in the Central African republic. The war Lord, Joseph Kony however remains at large. While news has it that he's not in the Central African Republic, it's not clear where he is and we have been told that had he been part of the group he would have been taken straight to Hague where he is wanted by the ICC.