The fugitive leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army has fallen ill, a Ugandan military spokesman said Monday, citing the accounts of recent defectors.
Joseph Kony is possibly suffering from diabetes, according to defectors who surrendered to Ugandan troops last month in Central African Republic, said Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda. That account is probably true, he said, because Ugandan intelligence over the years “also indicates that Kony has diabetes.”
Kasper Agger, a researcher with the watchdog group Enough Project, said he receives many reports of Kony’s failing health but it is impossible to independently verify them. The reports from defectors suggest that the apparently ill Kony “doesn’t have the same willingness to fight,” he said.
Although many of the defectors said Kony is suffering from diabetes, some also suggested the elusive warlord has AIDS, he said.
The Lord’s Resistance Army, which originated in Uganda in the 1980s, became notorious for kidnapping children as fighters and forcing girls to be sex slaves. The group is reportedly in decline, with many of its fighters surrendering or dying in firefights with African troops across Central Africa.
Ugandan and Congolese forces have been hunting for the remaining LRA fighters, aided by about 100 US military advisors.