Uganda’s military operations in DRC have killed hundreds of IS-allied militants

More than 560 members of a rebel group linked to the Islamic State (IS) have been killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since December 2021 in operations conducted by Uganda’s military, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has said, as local authorities in DRC have reported scores of dead and injured following an attack on a village in a border region adjacent to Uganda.

The IS-affiliated rebel group known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which is based in the jungles of the DRC, has been launching attacks in both DRC and Uganda. With the permission of the DRC government, Uganda’s military has carried out operations against the ADF to destroy their camps and capture or eliminate their fighters. Since the start of the Operation Shuja, the Uganda People’s Defense Forces, or UPDF, has successfully killed 567 ADF fighters, captured 50 more and seized lots of lethal equipment, President Museveni said recently. The Ugandan leader also stressed that the ADF is in a desperate situation, and their only option now is to surrender.

Although ADF is primarily active in eastern DRC, the IS-linked armed group has also been responsible for several devastating attacks in neighboring Uganda, including suicide bombings outside a major police station and near the parliament building in 2021 and a school massacre in June of this year, killing dozens of people. Museveni’s statement comes as a village in the DRC’s Ituri province was attacked by armed men on Thursday (7 September) killing at least 18 people and injuring 12. The DRC’s easternmost province is plagued by a myriad of armed groups and violence that has forced millions of people to flee their homes.