Indicted for killing thousands and kidnapping children to become soldiers and sex slaves, Joseph Kony has been Africa's most notorious warlord for three decades.
Now that the United States and others are ending the international manhunt for him and his Lord's Resistance Army, it appears Kony may never be brought to justice.
His elusiveness in the often lawless bush of central Africa is legendary.
In one incident Ugandan military forces in hot pursuit raided Kony's hideout deep in a Congo wildlife park in 2008 and seized little but a wig and guitar he left behind.
Despite the millions of dollars spent to catch him, Kony has outlasted his hunters.
That's a blow to victims who hoped he would stand trial at the International Criminal Court where he has been charged for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"The yearning for justice is there," said Judith Akello, a lawmaker who represents a community in northern Uganda once hit by Kony's rebel insurgency.
"Justice is what the people demand."
Kony became internationally notorious in 2012 when the US-based advocacy group Invisible Children made a viral video highlighting the LRA's alleged crimes. The group is accused of killing over 100,000 people, according to the U.N.
The US has offered up to $US5 million for information leading to Kony's capture.
Although scores of LRA fighters have recently surrendered or been killed, the whereabouts of Kony, now in his 50s, remain a mystery.
Recent defectors from the rebel group suggest he is sick and hiding somewhere in the vast, ungoverned spaces of central Africa.
In pulling out of the military mission against the LRA, the US in March said the rebel group's active membership is now less than 100.
The US first sent about 100 special forces as military advisers to the mission in 2011, and in 2014 sent 150 Air Force personnel.
Echoing the US, Uganda's military last month announced it was ending the manhunt and pulling out 1500 troops because "the mission to neutralise the LRA has now been successfully achieved."
The military withdrawal means Kony may never be caught, said some observers. Of the five LRA commanders indicted by the ICC in 2005, he is the only one still at large.
One commander, Dominic Ongwen, is currently on trial at the ICC following his arrest in Central African Republic in 2015.
"Kony is the ultimate master of survival in the jungle," said Kasper Agger, an independent researcher in Central African Republic who monitors LRA activities.
"He has survived three decades of warfare and evaded capture from the most powerful and expensive military in the world."
