The Ugandan Armed Forces have in recent days carried out bombing raids against a «large terrorist camp» of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) group, which pledged allegiance to Islamic State, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has confirmed.
Museveni said in a statement posted on his website that the attack was carried out on Friday «with the permission of the DRC government» and stressed that «it is important that Africans and the people of East Africa know the capacity that Africa has to help solve these chronic security problems».
«This location is beyond the limit of exploitation agreed with the Congolese government,» he explained, referring to the agreement reached between Kampala and Kinshasa to carry out joint operations against the ADF in the face of an upsurge in attacks by the group in recent months.
Thus, he stressed that in the area of joint operations «all the camps identified by the reconnaissance work have been destroyed, killing many terrorists and capturing others, as well as liberating the terrorized population of the area».
«For all this, we have worked with the brother Congolese Army. That is why the enemy, in desperation, has fled beyond the limit of exploitation. The ignorant terrorists do not know that in minutes, not hours, we can reach them with deadly fire in many areas beyond the boundary line,» Museveni argued.
The Ugandan president stressed that the ADF «received their deserved reward» and promised to work with Kinshasa to continue these operations. «Congratulations to the Ugandan Army and congratulations to the Government and the Army of the DRC,» he remarked.
The DRC and Ugandan governments signed a defense and security agreement in December 2021 for these operations in the Congolese provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, after Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA) — to which the ADF pledged allegiance — claimed a series of attacks in Uganda.
The ADF, a Ugandan group created in the 1990s that was particularly active in eastern DRC and accused of killing hundreds of civilians in this part of the country, may be attempting to return to operating in Uganda, from where it withdrew in 2003 after a series of military operations drastically reduced its capacity to carry out attacks in the country.
The ADF underwent a split in 2019 after Musa Baluku–sanctioned by the United Nations and the United States–swore allegiance to ISCA, under whose banner it has been operating ever since. Baluku succeeded Jamil Mukulu as the group’s leader after his 2015 arrest in Tanzania.
