The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A military Garrison tribunal sitting in Beni city, North Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has today sentenced two collaborators of the rebel Allied Democratic Forces-ADF to 20 years in jail for first-class hard labour after pleading guilty to their involvement with the insurrectionary movement.
The convicts are Kyanza Mabimbi and Pelekini Kambale, all residents of Beni territory. Major Kalambayi Mufungayi presided over the military tribunal, which tried the duo that was arrested from the Ruwenzori sector in Beni last year and charged with collaborating and providing information to the rebel Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
The two pleaded guilty to the charges. While reading the sentence, Major Mufungayi said that the duo would serve the 20 years sentence of main servitude because they contributed to the high cases of insecurity in the province. Mafungayi also ordered the convicts to pay court costs worth 300,000 Congolese Francs equivalent to Uganda Shillings 537,027.
These are not the first ADF collaborators to be sentenced to first-class hard labour. In March this year, the same court sentenced Kavugho Mayani and Mweki Kambale to 15 years of first-class hard labour after pleading guilty to the same charges.
The Beni garrison military court has sentenced 28 ADF fighters and their collaborators in the last four months since it started public hearings. The convicts include a Kenyan, Rwandan, and two Ugandans. Despite all efforts by Congolese authorities in conjunction with the Ugandan army to eliminate ADF rebels from the eastern part of DRC, the rebels have not stopped carrying out surprise attacks.
The latest ADF attacks occurred on April 26th, 2022, in Mighende-Hululu, on the Beni-Kasindi highway in Beni territory and Kosakosa village near the Mungamba commercial centre in the Walese Vonkutu chiefdom of Irumu territory, North Kivu province.
In Mighende-Hululu, on the Beni-Kasindi highway, the rebels killed four people including two women and also torched two vehicles during an attack, according to Ricardo Rupande, the leader of the civil society in Ruwenzori.
The incident took place in the evening when suspected ADF assailants targeted two vehicles from Kasindi. The rebels also killed two civilians and abducted 10 others in Kosakosa village.
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