The Allied Democratic Forces insurgency is an ongoing conflict waged by the Islamic State-aligned Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), against the governments of those two countries and the MONUSCO. The insurgency began in 1996, intensifying in 2013, resulting in hundreds of deaths. The ADF is known to currently control a number of hidden camps which are home to about 2,000 people; in these camps, the ADF operates as a proto-state with "an internal security service, a prison, health clinics, and an orphanage" as well as schools for boys and girls.
Background The ADF was formed by Jamil Mukulu, a far-right Ugandan Muslim belonging to the Tablighi Jamaat group. Born David Steven and baptized as a Catholic, Mukulu later converted to Islam, adopting a Muslim name and becoming radicalized. He reportedly spent the early 1990s in Khartoum, Sudan, coming into personal contact with Osama bin Laden.
The ADF merged with the remnants of another rebel group, the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU), following the fall of Idi Amin. ADF-NALU's initial goal was to overthrow Ugandan president's Yoweri Museveni government, replacing it with an Islamic fundamentalist state. The group went on to recruit former officers of the Ugandan army, as well as volunteers from Tanzania and Somalia. Funded by the illegal mining and logging industries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ADF created 15 well organized camps in the Rwenzori Mountains, located in the DRC—Uganda border areas. The insurgence remained unaffected by government amnesty and talk efforts, as members married local women.
ADF has collaborated with al-Shabaab and Lord's Resistance Army, receiving training and logistic support, with limited direct involvement from al-Shabaab. Other alleged sponsors of the faction include Sudanese Islamist politician Hassan al-Turabi and former DRC president Mobutu Sese Seko.
The ADF was formed in 1989, gradually intensifying its insurgency. By 2002, continuous pressure from the Ugandan army forced the ADF to relocate most of its activities into the neighboring DRC. The insurgency continued on a smaller scale until 2013, which marked a resurgence of ADF activity, with the group launching a recruitment campaign along with numerous attacks.
Timeline
1996 On 13 November 1996, the ADF perpetrated its first large-scale attack, on the towns of Bwera and Mpondwe-Lhubiriha in Kasese district, Uganda. Approximately 50 people were killed. 25,000 people fled the towns, before they were recaptured by Ugandan troops.
1997 Uganda expanded operations in the DRC from September 1997 onwards to attack ADF rebels. The DRC allowed these actions per DRC-authorized Ugandan deployments into Ntabi on 19 December, early February 1998, and early July 1998.
From 11 to 13 August 1997, a bilateral meeting took place between the DRC and Uganda in Kinshasa regarding Ugandan operations against ADF rebels.
1998 On 20 February 1998, ADF abducted 30 children during the aftermath of an attack on a Seventh-Day Adventist college in Mitandi, Kasese district.
On 4 April, five people were killed and at least six wounded when bombs exploded at two restaurants in Kampala. From 6 to 7 April, a bilateral meeting was held in Kampala between the DRC and Uganda; it concerned Ugandan operations against ADF rebels. Bilateral meetings would resume later that month, from 24 to 27 April, in Kinshasa. In the latter meetings, the "Protocol on Security along the Common Border" was signed on 27 April. It focused on ending all armed rebel conflict, especially in Ruwenzori. Thus, their militaries agreed to cooperate on border security.
On 8 June, ADF rebels killed eighty students of the Kichwamba Technical College in Kabarole District, Uganda. Eighty students were abducted in the same raid. In June 1998, ADF rebels abducted over 100 school children from a school in Hoima, Uganda.
In August, thirty people were killed in three separate bus bombings, perpetrated by ADF.
1999 Between 10 April and 30 May 1999, ADF carried out seven attacks, resulting in 11 deaths and 42 wounded.
On 9 December 1999, ADF attacked the Katojo prison facility, releasing 360 prisoners held for terrorism.
2000 On 20 April, Chief of Staff of the ADF, Commander Benz, surrendered to the UPDF, the first senior commander to do so.
2005 A two-day meeting from 21 to 23 April held in Lubumbashi discussed armed groups within the DRC. It was attended by the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda, collectively termed the Tripartite Commission. The discussion primarily concerned the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda's (FDLR) intention to surrender on the condition of disarmament and repatriation into Rwanda. On 21 April, Uganda accused the DRC of harboring the ADF within the DRC's border by the Ugandan Minister of Cooperation in Lubumbashi. The DRC's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ramazani Baya, denied the claim. By 23 April, the Tripartite Commission released a statement affirming "their commitment to put an end to the threat posed ... by the presence and activities of the negative forces in the east." The three countries agreed to put into effect a US-backed information exchange mechanism for confidence building. Despite their mention in discussion, the statement made no mention of ADF rebels or their activity. The three countries planned to meet again in Kigali in August.
On 30 April, USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) reported that its Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) program disarmed around 11,500 former combatants since September 2004, with a thousand disarmed in September alone. OTI's Synergie d'Education Communautaire et d'Appui à la transition (SE*CA) community engagement and grant program indicated a success in diffusing ethnic tensions. Their program appraisal claimed that "there [was an] improvement on all indicators," with significant stability in many areas, including Kisangani and Bunia. Stability and greater acceptance sentiments caused war affected people in communities hosting the SE*CA efforts to participate in reintegration efforts more.
The Tripartite Commission Plus One, which included Burundi, met on 27 October in Kampala to further discuss foreign rebel presence in eastern DRC.
2007 During March 2007, the UPDF engaged ADF groups in multiple firefights, killing at least 46 in Bundibugyo and Mubende districts. The biggest battle occurred on 27 March, when the UPDF faced an estimated sixty ADF troops and killed 34, including three senior commanders. The UPDF claimed to have retrieved numerous weapons as well as documents that tie the ADF to the LRA.
On 13 April, the UPDF and ADF engaged in an intense battle inside the Semuliki National Park, near the upscale Semliki Lodge tourist destination.
On 4 December, two hundred ADF and NALU militants surrendered to Ugandan authorities.
2008 Ceasefire and amnesty talks between the government of Uganda and the ADF were held in Nairobi starting in May 2008. Negotiations were complicated by the fragmentation of the ADF's leadership. Non-combatant dependents of the ADF were repatriated to Uganda by the IOM. At least 48 ADF fighters surrendered and were given amnesty. As the threat from the LRA in the DRC waned, the UPDF put increasing focus on the ADF as a reason for UPDF personnel to remain in the DRC.
2012 Between February to March 2012, over sixty ADF insurgents were arrested within Uganda. Between November 2012 and November 2013, ADF carried out 300 kidnappings.
2013 On 24 January 2013, insurgents tortured and later executed thirteen people abducted from the city of Oicha, North Kivu.
In April, it was reported that ADF started a recruitment campaign in Kampala and other parts of the country. Citing a defector from ADF, "allAfrica" reported that some ten new recruits joined ADF forces every day.
In July, the ADF renewed its fighting in the Congolese district of Beni. The ADF, together with the NALU, fought a pitched battle with the FARD, briefly taking the towns of Mamundioma and Totolito. On 11 July, the ADF attacked the town of Kamango, triggering the flight of over 60,000 refugees across the border into the Ugandan district of Bundibugyo.
Early in September, regional leaders under the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) asked the recently formed combative Intervention Brigade under MONUSCO to attack positions of foreign forces operating in DRC, including the ADF. On 23 September, three people were killed during an ADF attack in the Watalinga Sector, North Kivu, DRC. On the 27th, ADF militants killed five and abducted 30 people in an attack on a health center in the village of Maleki, DRC.
On 23 October, ADF guerrillas abducted 26 people from the village of Upira, North Kivu, later transferring them to the rebel strongholds of Makembi and Chuchubo.
On 14 December, thirteen people were killed, in the aftermath of an ADF attack on the Musuku village, Uganda. On 15 December, ADF killed eight people in the Biangolo village, Uganda. On the 25th, ADF rebels attacked the city of Kamango, DRC. Over fifty civilians were killed and many buildings were burnt down. The city was retaken by the Congolese army the following day. On the 29th, ADF launched another attack on the city of Kamango. The ADF militants beheaded 21 civilians and urged the residents of the city to flee to Uganda.
2014 A report by New York University in September 2017 found that Congolese army commanders orchastrated massacres in Beni from 2014 to 2016. It cited multiple witnesses saying that army commanders, including the former top general in the zone, supported and in some cases organized the killings. Sources told it that during some massacres, soldiers secured the perimeter so that victims could not escape. It stated that the first massacres were orchestrated in 2013 by former leaders of the rebel group Popular Congolese Army (APC), which fought in the Second Congo War to create a new rebellion and undermine confidence in the central government of DRC. The report found these rebels were working with ADF. However, when the massacres began, the army commanders co-opted many of the networks of the local militias to weaken their rivals.On 17 January 2014, the Congolese army drove ADF militants soldiers out of the city of Beni, with the aid of UN's "Intervention Brigade" peace corps.
On 17 February, a Congolese army spokesman announced that the military had killed 230 ADF rebels in the aftermath of a monthlong offensive, 23 FARDC soldiers were also killed in the operation.
On 23 March, South African helicopters struck ADF forces for the first time, in support of Operation Sukola 1.
Between 5 and 8 October, ADF militants killed fifteen people, within North Kivu province. On 15 October, ADF rebels killed 27 people in an attack on villages, located outside Beni. On the 18th, ADF insurgents killed over twenty people, in an attack on the village of Byalos, DRC. On the 31st, a crowd stoned to death, burned, and then ate a suspected ADF insurgent in Beni.
On 20 November, rebels disguised as Congolese soldiers killed 50-80 people near Beni.
On 8 December, militants hacked to death 36 civilians in the vicinity of Beni. On 26 December, an ADF attack resulted in the deaths of eleven people, in the village of Ndumi, Ituri.
2015 On 4 January 2015, a joint MONUSCO—FARDC offensive forced ADF militants out of the village of Mavure in North Kivu. One rebel was killed; government forces seized large amounts of drugs and training materials.
On 5 February, ADF carried out a night raid on the city of Beni hacking to death 23 people and injuring one.
On 9 March, ADF rebels killed one and injured two civilians in the area of the Semliki bridge, North Kivu.