Major General Caesar Achellam, one of the top Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commanders, has been captured.
Achellam, who has been the Chief of Operations in the LRA was captured on Friday night after he and a group of his fighters fell into a UPDF ambush near River Vovodo at the DR Congo—Central African Republic border.
A senior UPDF officer who did not want to be quoted told Uganda Radio Network that Achellam was in the company of two of his wives and eight children. He was reportedly found in possession of satellite phones and a camera.
Sources in the army say that Achellam was crossing from Congo to Central Africa on his way to Bahr el Ghazal in Southern Sudan, where LRA leader Joseph Kony is suspected to be hiding. Achellam’s captors suspect he has a lot of information about the LRA activities, as he was believed to heading for a meeting with Kony at the time of his capture.
The army spokesperson Col Felix Kulayigye could not be reached as repeated calls on his mobile phones went unanswered. But Uganda Radio Network has established that on Sunday morning, Kulayigye together with local and foreign journalists flew to Nzara, in Southern Sudan, where Achellam is being held. Nzara is the tactical headquarters for the Ugandan forces who are part of the joint African Union force hunting for Kony. They are assisted by about 100 US Special Forces.
Reuters quotes Kulayigye as saying the arrest of Major General Caesar Achellam is big progress because it is “definitely going to cause an opinion shift within LRA."
In March this year, the African Union (AU) put together a 5,000-strong military force headed Col Dick Olum to hunt down Kony, who has headed the brutal LRA force for over 25 years.
The hunt for the LRA leader gained international momentum early this year when a video about Kony posted on YouTube by a California film-maker has been viewed by tens of millions of people.
The AU force aims to coordinate soldiers from Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic who are hunting down the fugitive leader.
