UPDF reports clashes with ADF in eastern DRC

KAMPALA, UGANDA | Xinhua | The Ugandan military said on Thursday that it lost two soldiers and killed three Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militants in clashes on Wednesday in the jungles of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

In a statement issued in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, the army said the fighting occurred in Apakwang, about 40 km north of Komanda in the DRC’s Mambasa Territory, an area once considered a stronghold of ADF leader Musa Baluku. Three guns were recovered from the rebels during the encounter.

“The enemy, under sustained pressure from joint UPDF (Uganda Peoples’ Defense Forces) and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo operations, has resorted to reprisal attacks in isolated and remotely controlled locations,” the statement said.

The army noted that its troops were pursuing another splinter group of about 20 fighters still active in the area.

The Ugandan and Congolese forces launched joint operations, dubbed Operation Shujaa, against the ADF in November 2021, shortly after the group carried out bomb attacks in Kampala.

The ADF, an affiliate of the Islamic State in Central Africa, is a Ugandan rebel group entrenched in the jungles of the eastern DRC. It has been blamed for widespread attacks on villages in the region. ■