The Ugandan military has announced the start of coordinated raids with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to flush out members of the armed organisation Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which continues to operate along both countries’ borders.
The ADF has been implicated by Ugandan police for a series of deadly suicide attacks in the capital, Kampala, earlier this month. Hundreds of attacks have been blamed on the armed group in eastern DRC.
The ADF, which the US has labelled a “terrorist” organisation, is thought to be the deadliest of hundreds of armed militias roaming the mineral-rich eastern DRC. The Congolese government agreed in August to allow US special forces to join the fight against the organisation.
Since 2013, the ADF has killed almost 6,000 people, according to the country’s Catholic Church. The Kivu Security Tracker (KST), based in the United States, has blamed it for over 1,200 deaths in the Beni district alone since 2017.
To combat the Yoweri Museveni administration, a coalition of rebel organisations, notably the Uganda Muslim Liberation Army and the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU), created the ADF in 1995. They established up camp in western Uganda before relocating to the DRC, where they were aided by the Sudanese government, which had a grudge against Museveni.
Jamil Mukulu, the group’s head, was born a Christian who converted to Islam and adopted the Salafist theology while studying in Saudi Arabia. He joined the NALU after he returned to Uganda.
When its commander died in 1995, he gathered similar groups to form the ADF with the unifying goal of establishing an Islamic state. Hundreds of youngsters were kidnapped to be child soldiers, and others were groomed to be suicide bombers as part of their duty.
Over time, various administrations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) aided the ADF in their efforts to counter Rwandan and Ugandan dominance in the country.
However, in 2013, the ADF began attacking Congolese military targets, prompting the army to respond with a counter-offensive. Mululu escaped to Tanzania in 2015, where he was apprehended and brought back to his own country to face terrorism charges.
The ADF has been associated to ISIL (ISIS) in recent years and refers to itself as the Madina at Tauheed Wau Mujahideen – City of Monotheism and Holy Warriors (MTM).
