Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF)

The Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF) group was created in 1995 and operates in the DRC and Uganda. Associated with the Islamic State.

In 2019, the rebel group includes opposition forces and Islamists to the incumbent President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni. The Ugandan government considers it terrorist. The UN blames rebels for the deaths of hundreds of civilians between 2014.

2020: Congolese troops close to defeating ADF

At the end of January 2020, Congolese troops captured Madina - the headquarters of the Allied Democratic Forces group - and are inexorably approaching its main stronghold - the city of Kamango on the border with Uganda.

The Islamic State-linked group responsible for the deaths of 1,000 people crumbles and disintegrates under the blows of elite units of the DRC hunting for the last jihadist field commander.

The closed group of Ugandan dissidents, who for some time call themselves Madina al-Tawhid wa mujahedin ("A hail of monotheism and jihad warriors"), is ruled by an iron hand and relies on impressive support - from the Ugandan Muslim diaspora of London to a number of rural militias and traditional leaders of the Mwuba and Pakombe nationalities. It has links to al-Qaeda, Islamic State and al-Shabab, as well as bases in the jihadist uprising-ridden Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado.

The group was an important part of Great Lakes' cross-border armed policy. The issues of survival, self-sufficiency and profit have always interested her more than the subtleties of interpreting the Quran. ADF finances its activities through the sale of wood and gold, a taxi network in Beni, Oycha and Butembo, as well as money transfers from its supporters from Britain, Kenya and Uganda, cashed through local offices. However, in everyday affairs, the group relies on the semi-slave labor of the Bazan - the wives of militants forcibly married to combatants and doing all the menial work in jihadist camps.

2019

ADF militants kill 19 people in North Kivu

On November 26, 2019, ADF rebels attacked a village in North Kivu province and killed 19 people.

Father and his five children killed by ADF members in North Kivu

In November 2019, a father and his five children of Ugandan descent were shot dead in the village of Oiche in North Kivu province the night before by rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces group Three people were injured, including a seriously injured child. The situation is still tense, according to local officials.

A total of about 25 civilians have been killed in attacks carried out by the group since the outbreak of hostilities was announced on October 30, 2019.

Residents criticise the army for not responding to public warnings and focus operations in the vicinity of Beni rather than the north on the Uganda border.

DRC army launches offensive against militias in the east of the country

General Richard Kasonga in November 2019 said that the positions of the rebels are under fire. According to him, the goal is to destroy all domestic and foreign groups that destabilize the eastern region for almost a quarter of a century.

The operation was launched in North Kivu province, which borders Uganda and Rwanda. A Ugandan armed group, Allied Democratic Forces, is active in the area, with hundreds of victims.

Five countries in the region DRC-,,, and Rwanda Burundi- Uganda Tanzania agreed to unite to fight the ADF.

IS claims responsibility for ADF attack for first time

In April 2019, IS claimed responsibility for an attack in DR Congo for the first time. ADF rebels then attacked the military barracks DRC and members of the UN Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO).

2017: Pledge of allegiance to Islamic State

In 2017, rebels swore allegiance to IS.

1995: Formation of a grouping with the participation of Saudi Arabia and Sudan to overthrow Ugandan President Museveni

The original goal of the ADF was to overthrow the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and create an Islamic fundamentalist regime in its place.

The jihadist underground in its most unexpected place - the jungles of eastern Congo - originated as a self-fulfilling prophecy. First, illiterate UN experts believed in its existence, and then the bandits themselves, who tried to comply with the label assigned to them. Appearing by chance, as a result of the difficult symbiosis of the Muslim sect Tablik and the rebel National Liberation Army of Uganda, the group, of course, owes much to its historical leader - Jamil Mukul, a pupil of Riyadh, who enlisted serious financial support from Saudi Salafis and Sudanese authorities, lived for a long time in London and Nairobi and conducted business in Tanzania.

But the final point in the ideological self-determination of the ADF was put by the international community itself, led by the UN, which believed in the existence of an international jihadist underground in the Congo and thereby set a desperately high bar for little-known militants. And the new ADF emir - Musa Baluku - brilliantly coped with this, deploying propaganda in five languages, including Telegram and YouTube.

The ADF has drawn into its ranks an entire international of fighters from Uganda, Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania, speaking a dozen languages, as well as Arab and British jihadists. In the impassable jungle and mountains, the ADF has spread a network of fortified bases and training centres, as well as schools, hospitals, prisons, shelters and... ominous "torture" centers, where until 2019 they sewed their mouths and put guilty militants on nails.

At the time of the formation of the group, Al-Shabab, affiliated with Al-Qaeda from Somalia, was also training terrorists.

The radicals received money from the illegal mining and logging industries in the east of DR Congo, which was facilitated by the chaos that was then associated with wars in the country. This is how the militants settled on the border between the DRC and Uganda.