By Faridah N Kulumba
Africa-Press – Uganda. Ugandan security officers from the police and military have heightened security at the common border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after confirmation that Allied Democratic Front (ADF) rebels recently infiltrated the country. This follows the announcement that was made by Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) last week, that ADF rebel militants had entered the country, and security forces are on the hunt for them. According to the Ugandan security forces, the Allied Democratic Forces militants are planning attacks in urban areas, places of worship, schools, and public events.
ADF rebels
Ugandan security forces are on high alert after they said fighters from an Islamic State-linked group entered the country at the weekend. The statement from the army said that group is suspected to be under the command of a notorious ADF commander Ahamed Muhamood Hassan, aka Abu Waqas, a Tanzanian-born ADF bomb expert. ADF, which was originally a Uganda-based rebel group, launched its attacks in the 1990s in the west by a Ugandan Jamil Mukulu whose adherents were Ugandans disgruntled with the government’s treatment of Muslims. The ADF fighters from an Islamic State-linked group have been linked to a series of deadly attacks in Uganda, including targeting a school last June in which more than 40 Ugandans were killed brutally. The recent attacks happened on 19 December in which 10 people were killed and the 26 December attack where 3 people were burnt to death in areas near the DR Congo border. In October last year, the group was blamed after a British tourist and his new South African wife who had come for their honeymoon, and a Ugandan tour guide were shot dead in a national park. Recently, the president of the Republic of Uganda H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni claimed that the current problem of the ADF militants was created by two former Presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and one Sudanese former President. President Museveni revealed that the ADF militant group was supported by the DR Congo former Presidents Mobutu Sese Seko and Joseph Kabila plus Omar El-Bashir of Sudan.
High alert
Police and sister security agencies have now stepped-up operations and patrols along the Uganda-DR Congo border to ensure that no illegal immigrants re-enter the country. Ugandan Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said in a recent press conference that security has also intensified operations. ‘‘We have intensified our patrols along the western borderline of Uganda with the eastern DR Congo, our joint security agencies of police,” Enanga said. Enanga added that the UPDF, in coordination with joint intelligence components of the Chief of Military Intelligence (CMI), Internal Security Organisation (ISO) crime intelligence are actively monitoring our external borderline with DR Congo following the infiltration into the country, a few notorious ADF rebel leaders. Police have urged all people to be vigilant and cautious by reporting anything suspicious. Officers guarding VIPs and key installations have also been cautioned to be more vigilant. Police have also warned all those who volunteer to cooperate and collaborate with the wrong ADF elements that if caught they will face the consequences.
Is Operation Shuajaa still active?
In November 2021, Uganda and DR Congo launched a joint operation dubbed “Operation Shujaa” against the ADF, an armed group allied with Islamic State. The ADF has been based in the jungles of eastern Congo for more than two decades from where they launch attacks both within DR Congo and sometimes across the border in Uganda. President Museveni in October last year announced that Uganda’s military helicopters launched an attack on a camp of the ADF rebels, located 60 km from the border between Uganda and the DR Congo that hosts hundreds of Ugandan troops that were deployed under a separate bilateral arrangement to help hunt down the IS group. In September 2023, the UPDF operating in the DR Congo killed more than 560 members of the ADF a group allied with Islamic State militants. In August, the UPDF killed one of the commanders of an Islamic State (IS)-allied rebel group in the DR Congo. According to the military statement that was issued, the militia commander who was identified by only one name, Fazul, was a Tanzanian national who had been operating mostly in Mwalika valley in eastern Congo’s North Kivu province. In a previous statement, Museveni had prophesied that ADF rebels might attempt to infiltrate the border to enter Uganda due to the mounting pressure they were facing from the joint forces of Ugandan and DR Congo soldiers.
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