DRC announces the death of two other senior officials of the ADF armed group, linked to the Islamic State

July 11 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has confirmed the death of two other senior officials from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed group, linked to the Islamic State, in the framework of an operation carried out in the province of North Kivu, located in the east of the country and the epicenter of the activities of this terrorist organization.

Mak Hazukay, spokesman for the ‘Shujaa’ operation, carried out jointly with the Ugandan Army, has specified that the dead are Lubangakane and Abdou Masirika, a Tanzanian national and faithful to Sheikh Chalamanda, an important leader of the ADF who operates in the Mwalika valley.

Hazukay has indicated that the operation was carried out over the weekend after a “reconnaissance patrol”, before adding that it resulted in the arrest of two people, including the daughter of Amuja Mbafumoja, also a senior ADF official. , according to the Congolese news portal Actualité.

The announcement comes less than two weeks after the DRC Armed Forces reported the death of Amri Abdi Shauri, a Tanzanian national who was operating as a “commander and medic” for the ADF. “He has been neutralized along with his wife Sifa, a Tanzanian national,” said the spokesman for the operational sector ‘Sokola-1 Great North’, Antony Mualushayi.

The armed group was created in the 1990s and is especially active in the eastern DRC, where it has been accused of killing hundreds of civilians. Their goal would be to return to Uganda, where they left in 2003 after several military operations that drastically reduced their capabilities.

The ADF suffered a split in 2019 after Musa Baluku — sanctioned by the United Nations and the United States — swore allegiance to the jihadist group Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), under whose banner it has operated since then. DRC and Uganda signed a defense agreement in December to carry out joint operations in eastern DRC.