Caesar Achellam was a major general in the

Lord's Resistance Army The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), also known as the Lord's Resistance Movement, is a rebel group and heterodox Christian group which operates in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Co ...

until his capture in 2012.

Affiliation with the LRA

Achellam joined the LRA voluntarily in the late 1980s after fighting for the Uganda People's Democratic Army (UPDA), a rebel group in northern Uganda that preceded the LRA. He had formal

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

training and periodically served as an instructor in military training drills for LRA combatants. Achellam spoke

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

, a skill he used to help manage the LRA’s strategic relationship with the Sudanese

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

in Khartoum. Before Achellam's capture, his relationship to

Joseph Kony Joseph Rao Kony (likely born 1961) is a Ugandan militant who founded the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Christian fundamentalist organization, designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Peacekeepers, the European Union and various ...

was uncertain. For years, Achellam's group operated in close proximity to Kony's group, but Kony placed Achellam under

house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...

in mid-2007 because of his opposition to seriously engaging the Juba peace negotiations. Achellam had instead urged Kony to reconnect with the Sudanese military officers in South Darfur.

Vincent Otti Vincent Otti (''c''. 1946 – 2 October 2007) was a Ugandan rebel who served as deputy-leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel guerrilla army operating mainly in northern Uganda and southern Sudan. He was one of the five persons fo ...

, then Kony's ranking deputy, convinced Kony to pursue the peace talks and openly accused Achellam of having received money from the Sudanese without disclosing it to Kony. However, following Otti's execution in late 2007, Kony exonerated Achellam and reinstated his status as a senior

commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

. Achellam was taken into custody by Ugandan military forces near the CAR/Congo border in May 2012.

References

Lord's Resistance Army rebels People indicted for crimes against humanity Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{Uganda-bio-stub