{UAH} Ugandan Islamist Rebels Prove Resilient Against DRC, U.N. Forces

Ugandan Islamist Rebels Prove Resilient Against DRC, U.N. Forces

The Editors Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015

Last month, clashes between the Congolese army, backed by U.N. peacekeepers, and the Islamist Ugandan rebel group the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) left at least 30 dead in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In an email interview, Daniel Fahey, a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, discussed the ADF and its role in the DRC.

WPR: What is the current size and geographic reach of the ADF, and what are the group's objectives and grievances?

The leader of the Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), Jamil Mukulu, is escorted by prison wardens, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, May 22, 2015 (AP photo by Khalfan Said).
Daniel Fahey: The estimates of the ADF's size in late 2015 range from 100 to 250 combatants. The ADF's footprint is relatively small, confined to an area near main roads northeast of the town of Beni, in North Kivu province. Its leaders tell their members that their goal is to take over the Ugandan government, but in recent years these leaders have acted more like they are trying to preserve and protect the "utopia" they created in the forest—consisting of a series of camps with schools, courts, hospitals and mosques—rather than undertake the fool's errand of invading Uganda.
 
WPR: How active is the ADF in eastern DRC, and what role does it play in the region's instability?

Fahey: Since October 2014, dozens of attacks in the Beni area have been blamed on the ADF, including the Nov. 29 attack in Eringeti, but it is increasingly clear that other armed actors are responsible for many, if not most, of these attacks. These other actors include the Congolese army and local militias.
 
The ADF plays different roles for different actors. For local communities, it has been a source of violence and insecurity, though it is just one of several armed groups active in the Beni area. For local officials and businessmen, the ADF has sometimes been a partner; indeed, its survival for more than 20 years has depended in large part on its local connections, as well as on its support network in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and London, England. For the DRC government, the ADF has been a useful enemy and a scapegoat. The government has periodically attacked the ADF, which has survived each time, only to be attacked again at a later date. Some army officers have actively cooperated with ADF, and others have exploited insecurity in the Beni area to pursue economic objectives, such as exporting timber or importing cars. During 2014, the DRC government also invoked attacks it blamed on the ADF to justify a crackdown on political opposition in the Beni area. For the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), the ADF is an embarrassment—a symbol of the mission's failure to protect civilian populations.
 
WPR: What steps have been taken to defeat the ADF by the DRC, Uganda and the international community, how effective have they been, and what is the outlook for the fight against the ADF?

Fahey: The DRC government launched a military operation against the ADF in January 2014 that significantly weakened the group, but like its previous operations, failed to defeat it. Since early 2014, MONUSCO has largely played a passive role in the Beni area, in part because U.N. troops have been reluctant to go into harm's way, but also because MONUSCO experienced a shocking intelligence failure on the ADF during 2014, and continues to suffer from the effects of that fiasco into late 2015. The outlook for progress in addressing violence in the Beni area is bleak as long as local and government actors continue to profit from conflict and insecurity, and as long as MONUSCO remains ineffective.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower

"But this I know, UPC believed and still believes in

very high education. We can call Obote all bad names we have, but the bottom line remains that he got more scholarships for Buganda than all previous Uganda leaders combined. That includes Sir Edward Mutesa, President Lule, President Binayisa, up to and into Ssabasajja Mutebi. Who all happen to be Baganda leaders." Mulindwa

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