DRC, Uganda Military Operations Preventing ADF Rebels From Recruiting
The joint military operation between DR Congo’s FARDC and Uganda’s UPDF prevents recruitment operations among the ADF rebels, while the group, according to o a Major General, is scampering for safety.
Major General Kayanja Muhanga of the Ugandan Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF) has revealed that the joint military operations being carried out by the UPDF and the Democratic Republic of Congo national army, FARDC, against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels in the territories of Beni of North Kivu province and Irumu in Ituri province in the eastern DR Congo, have succeeded in cutting the recruitment networks of the rebels.
FARDC and UPDF held a third evaluation meeting yesterday, Friday, Aug. 26, in Fort Portal in Kabarole district of western Uganda.
“At this stage, the ADF is not yet eradicated, but we have interrupted their contacts, their recruitment of combatants, their logistic supplies and all their networks,” Major General Kayanja Muhanga declared as he rendered an account of the coordination of the joint military operations.
“We have dislodged the ADF from their bastions where they had been for several years. The two forces, FARDC and UPDF, have dislodged the ADF from their fiefs, notably in Yuwa, Tondoli, Lusulubi and Belu,” the Ugandan officer revealed.
The ADF, a predominantly Ugandan Islamic rebel group, arrived in DR Congo in 1995 and has been reinforcing its forces through networks that permit them to recruit locally and externally, notably from East African countries.
The rebellion allied with the Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for several regional attacks.
The most recent attack claimed by the ADF is on the Butembo prison resulting in the escape of over 800 inmates.
The FARDC and UPDF envisage launching the fourth phase of their operations, but while waiting for the fourth phase, the rebels’ killing and looting continue.
“They have been burning vehicles, looting properties and abducting people from the villages situated on the national highway number four. The authorities have decided to suspend traffic on this road of capital importance which links the provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and Tshopo to Uele province,” a senior Congolese army officer said.
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