Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni announced that his country has killed over 560 members of an Islamic State-affiliated rebel group since launching operations against them in December 2021.
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an anti-Kampala group, is based in the jungles in the eastern part of the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and conducts attacks in both Congo and Uganda.
With the approval of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government, Uganda’s military launched operations against the ADF in Congo with the aim of dismantling their camps and apprehending or neutralizing the group’s fighters.
In a speech delivered late on Thursday, President Museveni reported that 567 ADF fighters had been killed during the operations, with an additional 50 captured. Among the 167 pieces of equipment recovered from the rebels were submachine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
“They are desperate … the only option for them is to surrender,” Museveni said.
Museveni called on operators of buses, markets, and hotels in Uganda to exercise vigilance and implement customer registration procedures to deter potential ADF attackers from utilizing their facilities.
This week, Ugandan police reported the discovery of at least six improvised explosive devices that ADF assailants had intended to deploy, including one that was confiscated from an attacker just outside a church he was about to enter.
In two of the most devastating attacks by the group in Uganda, suicide bombings outside a major police station in the capital and near the parliament building in 2021 resulted in the deaths of seven people.
In June of this year, 42 individuals, primarily students, were tragically massacred at a school in Kasese, Western Uganda.