[attach id=245615 size="medium"]Leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army Joseph Kony. Photo: Reuters[/attach]

The United States yesterday offered a reward of up to $5 million (€3,892,000) each for fugitive Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony and some of his top aides in the Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group.

Kony, who has been accused of terrorising northern Uganda for 20 years and was ejected from the country along with his rebel group in 2005, is wanted by the Inter-national Criminal Court for various war crimes.

The warlord and a few hundred followers are now believed to roam the remote jungle straddling the borders of South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.

His guerrillas are accused of abducting children to use as fighters and sex slaves, and of hacking off victims’ limbs as a method of intimidation and revenge.

The State Department said Kony, along with aides identified as Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen, had been cited under the department’s newly-expanded War Crimes Rewards Programme.

Under the programme the State Department offers rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest, transfer or conviction of such fugitives.

Others named yesterday by the State Department under the programme are Sylvestre Mudacumura, leader of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

It also cited nine fugitives from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.