Ugandan army carries out airstrikes on ADF positions in DRC

Published on : 11/30/2021 – 12:02Modified : 11/30/2021 – 12:05

After the green light from Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi on Sunday, airstrikes and artillery were carried out Tuesday, November 30 from Uganda on positions of the rebel group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the spokesman for the Congolese government announced on Twitter.

“As announced, the targeted and concerted actions with the Ugandan army started with airstrikes and artillery fire from Uganda on the positions of ADF terrorists in the DRC,” indicates the tweet of the spokesperson, the Minister of Communication Patrick Muyaya.

“This morning, we launched joint air and artillery strikes against ADF camps with our Congolese allies,” the Ugandan army spokesman (UPDF, Uganda People’s Defense Force) said in another near-simultaneous tweet. .

“Targeted and concerted actions”

An adviser to the DRC presidency told AFP on Sunday that President Félix Tshisekedi had authorized the Ugandan army to cross the border to fight ADF rebels, perpetrators of massacres in eastern DRC and accused by Kampala to be the perpetrators of recent attacks in the Ugandan capital.

This authorization is not viewed favorably by all Congolese, some pointing to the role played by Ugandan and Rwandan neighbors in the destabilization of eastern DRC for nearly thirty years.

During a usual briefing devoted to the state of siege established since early May in two provinces of eastern DRC, the Congolese Minister of Communication assured Monday that there were “no Ugandan troops” in the DRC, but that “targeted and concerted actions” were “envisaged with the Ugandan army to fight the terrorists of the ADF, our common enemy”.

Originally, the ADF was a coalition of Ugandan armed groups, the largest of which was made up of Muslims opposed to the regime of President Yoweri Museveni. They have been living in eastern Congolese since 1995, where they have established themselves.

Since April 2019, some of their attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State organization, which refers to the group as its “Central African Province”. Last March, the United States placed the ADF among the “terrorist groups” affiliated with ISIS jihadists.

With AFP