\nBy EMMANUEL MUTAIZIBWA <\/b><\/p>\n
Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>It was exactly 25 years and eight days that separated the audacious attacks on Kichwamba Technical Institute and Lhubiriha Secondary School, Mpondwe, two soft targets that squat at the edge of the Mountain Rwenzori ranges, by the suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels, whose bases are located in the restive eastern DR Congo.<\/p>\n The rebel group formed in the early 1990s, is an offshoot of Amon Bazira\u2019s National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU) and the Salaf Foundation and its militant wing, the Uganda Muslim Freedom Fighters led by Jamil Mukulu, Muzafar Mulinde and Obed Ssenyondo.<\/p>\n Barely a week ago, authorities claimed the attack on Lhubiriha Secondary School, Mpondwe, a border outpost with DRC, where 43 persons were killed, including 37 students, was a textbook ADF attack.<\/p>\n In the aftermath of the attack, First Lady Janet Museveni, who doubles as Education minister, said there had been a \u201cconflict\u201d between \u201cgroups in Kasese [District] who wanted to take it [the school] over\u201d and the non-governmental organisation (NGO) that built it. She also revealed that the auditors from the NGO had been at the school the day before the attack.<\/p>\n Brig Felix Kulayigye, the Defence ministry and Army spokesperson, last weekend told KFM that \u201cthe signature [of the attackers] is ADF, but given the fact that this school has been having wrangles over ownership, we are leaving room open.\u201d<\/p>\n As questions abound in regard to the gross intelligence lapses and the delay to respond to the attack in the area, with a heavy army and police presence, intelligence may need to pore over the details of the Kichwamba attack and another earlier raid staged at Mpondwe in 1996 by suspected ADF insurgents.<\/p>\n Gathering testimonies based on survivors, intelligence leads and evidence that the Ugandan government filed as the counter-memorial at the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Armed Activities on the Territory of Congo case, we provide an insight into the similar and contrasting patterns of these attacks.<\/p>\n For instance, why did the UPDF in the Kichwamba and Mpondwe raids put up a resilient fight against the attackers who were larger in numbers compared to last Friday\u2019s attack that was masterminded by only five criminals? Does this amplify the theory that perhaps individuals involved in a school dispute hired mercenary ADF cells based across the border to attack the school, an act which was not sanctioned by their chief ideologue, Musa Baluku?<\/p>\n Was this the ADF or another criminal group? Did the attack bear a few contrasts as a result of an ideological cleavage in the shifting sands of time that has pitted the radical wing aligned to the Islamic State against the group loyal to its imprisoned founder, Jamil Mukulu?<\/p>\n 1996 attack<\/b><\/p>\n Earlier on, the ADF, on September 13, 1996, launched its major attack on Mpondwe customs post, Bwera Town. It resulted in the death of 50 people at the hands of 800 heavily-armed ADF insurgents, who\u2014according to Ugandan intelligence reports\u2014were under the command and control of Congolese and Sudanese commanders.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rebels who participated in the attack were transported by FAZ (Zairean army) troops in FAZ vehicles from various camps in eastern Congo. The arms and ammunition used by the rebels, included more than 1,500 AK 47s, twenty 12.7 mm AAC, GPMGs, and 60\/82 mm mortars and a lot of assorted ammunition were provided by the Congolese and Sudanese governments,\u201d an intelligence report reads.<\/p>\n This attack was a culmination of the collaboration that had been cultivated in the first bases of ADF inside DRC after ADF fighters came under the salvo of the UPDF in Buseruka, Hoima District, and fled across Lake Albert.<\/p>\n As reported in 1995 by Ali Bwambale, then ADF\u2019s deputy secretary-general: \u201cDuring Mobutu\u2019s regime, it\u2019s Zairean troops who were providing us with security and they were the ones coordinating our operations. They were the ones escorting our commanders to Kinshasa for meetings with Mobutu and Sudanese government officials. Congolese coordination of operations was routinely performed at the ADF\u2019s headquarters in Beni.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cZai\u0308re generals never visited our hattie field, but they could always come to coordinate our operations at our [headquarters] in Beni. This is confirmed by Vihamba Kule, the director of the \u201cADF\u2019s external security organisation: During the reign of Mobutu, very many military generals used to visit our camps, most especially Beni where the headquarters of the ADF were.\u201d<\/p>\n Bwambale proceeded to reveal that the ADF got 200 guns from one of the original Congo-based anti-Uganda rebel groups supported by Sudan. The group was known as NALU.<\/p>\n \u201cLater on, our commanders went to Sudan and got some guns\u201482 mm [and] 60 mm mortars, 125 mm [machine] guns,\u201d Bwambale disclosed, adding that other weapons \u201cferried on Zai\u0308re government trucks escorted by Mobutu\u2019s soldiers to our location in Buhira\u201d were GPMGs, RPGs, MMGs, LMGs, MGLs, and SMGs, grenades, mines and ammunitions.<\/p>\n In his testimony, Ali Lyavala\u2014a founding member of the ADF\u2014revealed that they \u201cestablished a base at Bunia [in eastern Congo, 30 kilometres from the Uganda border]. This, he added, was \u201cunder the direct authority of President Mobutu.\u201d<\/p>\n As the ADF began to grow, Lyavala said they \u201copened up a camp at Buhira [20 kilometres from the border].\u201d It was at Buhira \u201cwhere we were carrying out training for most of the combatants.\u201d Also among the ADF bases were Bunia and Beni, [50 kilometres from the border].<\/p>\n \u201cWe continued getting support from President Mobutu until he was overthrown by [Laurent] Kabila,\u201d Lyavala divulged.<\/p>\n Kabila links<\/b><\/p>\n When relations between Kabila and his erstwhile allies Uganda and Rwanda quickly broke down, the then DRC President, in September of 1997, appointed Mathias Ebamba commander of Congolese armed forces in eastern Congo. An ex-FAZ colonel, Ebamba had served in a similar role under Mobutu, who had facilitated the latter\u2019s military and logistical assistance to the ADF. Col Ebamba replaced a Banyamulenge officer deemed sympathetic to Uganda.<\/p>\n As Col Ebamba settled into his commander of the Armed Forces of the Republic of the Congo or FAC\u2019s Fifth Brigade role in Bunia, a contemporaneous UPDF intelligence report\u2014issued in February of 1998\u2014stated thus: \u201cThe former operational brigade commander, Col Ebamba, has been posted back here as the brigade commander, plus many of the former officers. This officer was directly in charge of NALU organisation, training, finance control and operations up to the last moment [NALU] attacked Uganda on November 13, 1996 at Bwera.\u201d<\/p>\n As reported by ADF Commander Issa Twatera Embundu, shortly after Col Ebamba\u2019s return to the region as military commander of Congolese forces, the Congoleses sent an emissary called Fatuma. A beer seller in Busange, Fatuma was ordered to tell ADF that the Congolese were ready to cooperate with them and provide logistics.<\/p>\n ADF was thus was asked to stop hostilities against FAC (Kabila\u2019s army). The ADF responded positively to this Congolese overture, and a meeting was arranged with three FAC commanders. \u2018\u2019The three commanders expressed disappointment with Mr Museveni\u2019s government and pledged support to ADF. After this meeting they reported to Col lbamba of FAC in Bunia, who took the message to President Kabila…. who agreed to support the ADF.\u201d<\/p>\n As a direct result, FAC officers\u2014Col Ebamba, Lt Col Mayara, Captain Kascereka and Captain Pangole\u2014 delivered weapons to the ADF. Another ADF combatant revealed that \u201cCol Ebamba [in Beni] and Lt Col Mayara, a brigade commander based in Bunia, were appointed as collaborators who would act as go-between the rebels and the DRC government for logistical support and sanctuary ….\u201d<\/p>\n Uganda protested to President Kabila about the activities of these officers, and urged that they be replaced. This, though, was to no avail. In fact, the ADF\u2019s Chief Director, Yusuf Kabanda, met frequently with President Kabila in Kinshasa, and dealt directly with Cabinet ministers and ADF leaders to coordinate strategy and arrange supplies and support, reads the counter-memorial.<\/p>\n President Kabila himself introduced Kabanda to one Solomon Kasereka of Mutendero, Butembo. Kasereka brought Congolese combatants into the ADF, from local \u201cMai Mai\u201d militia groups and Katangese gendarmes loyal to President Kabila.<\/p>\n As reported by ADF Commander Junju Juma, who headed the ADF\u2019s Presidential Protection Unit, DRC military officers coordinated the ADF\u2019s recruitment, training, weapons, supplies and operations during this period. Brig Bambu was responsible for ferrying ammunition from Kinshasa to ADF in Beni, Col Mayara was responsible for receiving ADF contacts\/logistics from Sudan and delivering them to ADF in the Rwenzori mountains.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, Maj Wamulamba was charged with coordinating ADF activities between Sudan-Kinshasa and Kisangani. Maj Abdallah Kule, who was charged with overseeing operations in Butembo, received a consignment of ammunition air-dropped by Kinshasa government destined to ADF. Captain James Kaseru was pivotal in linking up Interahamwe with ADF. He did this, intelligence reports show, with the blessing of the Kabila government amongst others.<\/p>\n Kichwamba attack<\/p>\n Reports indicate that logistics and manpower from Kinshasa government to ADF rebels was under the control of Kasareka, a civilian who served as \u201cchief link between ADF, Kabila government and Congolese civilians…. coordinates movement of troops and logistics from Kabila government and ADF.\u201d<\/p>\n By the time Kichwamba Technical School was attacked, the ADF was still receiving support from the Kinshasha government. In fact, earlier in 1997, the ADF had acted on a false intelligence tip and attempted to attack the Technical School at the time the students were on holiday. They later raided Kihondwa Trading Centre where they looted food and goats.<\/p>\n In July 1997, the ADF raided various villages across western Uganda where they killed 28 civilians and abducted 14 others at Ntokoro in Bundibugyo District.<\/p>\n The following month, they killed 35 people at Karambi in Kabarole District. On September 14, they killed 30 displaced persons at a refugee camp in Nyakahuka, Bundibugyo District. In response to these attacks, and as relations between Kampala and Kinshasa thawed, at President Kabila\u2019s invitation in December 1997, Uganda sent two UPDF battalions. These consisted of 1,200 men into eastern Congo, and were meant to supplement the much smaller force that had been sent in May.<\/p>\n The two battalions set up camps near Beni and Butembo, close to the Ugandan border, and together with some of the Kinshasa government\u2019s army units in the region began to root out ADF and West Nile Bank Front (WNBF) insurgents from their Congolese bases.<\/p>\n A few days before June 8, 1998, the ADF rebels had camped in the forested gullies and mist-covered Rwenzori ranges. As a result of intelligence lapses that failed to act on the warnings, a raid at the technical institute was actualised.<\/p>\n \u201cOn Sunday evening [June 7, 1998,] I had gone for an evening walk together with my friends Joseph and Frank along Bundibugyo Road down the hills. We met there a group of five men we suspected to be rebels. It was around 7.30 pm. They convinced us to continue walking to Karugutu. We refused and returned to the college and I jokingly told my colleagues in the dormitory what had transpired. I told them that these were rebels and were coming to attack the college at night,\u201d recalls Joab Kaganda, a survivor.<\/p>\n Eventually, the ADF raided the school in the night, overpowered the UPDF and killed 80 students. Most of them died in an inferno after the rebels doused dormitories with petrol. Hundreds more of the students were abducted.<\/p>\n According to ADF participants and the counter-memorial filed at the Hague, \u201cthe attackers divided themselves into three units: one group of 24 staged an ambush on the way to the school to prevent Ugandan soldiers from rescuing the students; a second unit of 36 attacked the school, armed with high-powered weapons and eight jerricans of petrol, and the third unit attacked the UPDF detachment at Kanyamura, which was close to the school.\u201d<\/p>\n The group went on rampage, attacking the same area on June 10 where they killed five more civilians and spread mayhem on 26 June at Banyangule Village, in Bundibugyo District, killing or wounding 11; and again, on July 5 at Kiburara, in Kasese District, where they abducted 19 seminarians from St John\u2019s Seminary. On August 1, 1998 the ADF launched an attack on Kasese Town, burning houses and stores and killing three.<\/p>\n Changing faces<\/b><\/p>\n Historically, the ADF was an unabashedly Ugandan group, with Congolese (often unwillingly) making up a sizeable portion of the lower ranks. New videos, however, feature fighters from Tanzania, Burundi, and other countries who appeal to their compatriots and the broader Muslim community to join their fight. They speak in Kiswahili (both Congolese and Tanzanian dialects), Luganda, Arabic, French and Kinyarwanda.<\/p>\n The ADF was clearly positioning itself as part of the global jihadist movement. While these efforts may seem fairly modest by the standards of other jihadist groups, it is important to contrast them with the ADF\u2019s history of very limited propaganda output, reflecting its secretive approach.<\/p>\n Initially, Jamil Mukulu was ardently opposed to the connection to the Islamic State. This was partly on ideological grounds; Mukulu\u2019s willingness to kill civilians does not seem to have extended to fellow Muslims as a takfirist ideology would require.<\/p>\n In 2019, an individual only known as David\u2014a self-described Mukulu-aligned operative\u2014explained his dislike of this ideology to a Uganda-based recruiter. He said: \u201cBaluku says it openly that a Muslim who doesn\u2019t support Arabs from Iraq, his blood is allowed to be poured, and the truth is that he pours it without fear of the owner of this earth.\u201d<\/p>\n Baluku\u2019s decision to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State was a step too far for Mukulu and his followers. In early 2019, a small band of Mukulu loyalists split from the larger corps that followed Baluku.<\/p>\n The breakaway group is reported to have 10-15 fighters in DRC, led by a man called Muzaaya, and, according to one former member, is affiliated with a training camp in South Africa headed by Mukulu\u2019s son Hassan Nyanzi.<\/p>\n Benjamin Kisokeranio, an ADF member who was granted honorary historical status for being the son of the founder of NALU, appears to be the highest ranking member to have defected over the disagreement.<\/p>\n Despite this split, Baluku has remained faithful to his pledge to the Islamic State, ridiculing those who left and reaping the benefits of the Islamic State\u2019s propaganda apparatus.<\/p>\n Islamic State in Central Africa<\/b><\/p>\n There are major contrasts between the tactical deployments and ideology of the ADF then under Mukulu and Musa Baluku, its current leader. For one, the latter has paid allegiance to the Islamic State. The Islamic State\u2019s central propaganda apparatus first referenced its \u201cCentral Africa Province\u201d in April 2019, taking credit for an assumed ADF attack in DRC. In March 2021, the US Department of State designated the ADF as a foreign terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n In September 2020, Baluku stated in one propaganda video that, \u201cThere is no ADF anymore. Allah willing, ADF ceased to exist a long time ago. […] Currently, we are a province, the Central Africa Province which is one province among the numerous provinces that make up the Islamic State that is under the Caliph and Leader of all Muslims…Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi.\u201d<\/p>\n According to a paper produced by George Washington University titled The Islamic State in Congo, in 2014\u2014on the heels of Sukola, a MONUSCO-backed Congolese military (FARDC) offensive against the ADF\u2014a major shift in the group\u2019s operations was underway. The ADF began to indiscriminately target civilians, including young children and elderly persons, in a wave of horrific retributive massacres, largely using machetes, axes, and small arms.<\/p>\n In 2016 and 2017, the group began engaging in social media-based propaganda and recruitment campaigns targeted primarily at regional audiences in Africa. Consequently, it reframed how it described and legitimised its operational and strategic activities. It ultimately rebranded as a global jihadist group and \u201cthe Islamic State in Central Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n By 2018, the Islamic State confirmed the establishment of an Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCAP), and then, in April 2019, the Islamic State acknowledged its first attacks in the DRC. What emerges is that while there is currently little evidence of direct command and control by the Islamic State, having adopted the Islamic State\u2019s ideology and strategy, the ADF has demonstrated a willingness to frame its operations as part of the Islamic State\u2019s global effort and contribute to its campaigns of \u2018attrition\u2019 and \u2018breaking the walls.\u2019<\/p>\n Source: Monitor<\/b><\/p>\n For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By EMMANUEL MUTAIZIBWA Africa-Press – Uganda. It was exactly 25 years and eight days that separated the audacious attacks on Kichwamba Technical Institute and Lhubiriha Secondary School, Mpondwe, two soft targets that squat at the edge of the Mountain Rwenzori ranges, by the suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels, whose bases are located in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":51457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-51458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\n