The US offers a reward for information on the ADF leader, who swore allegiance to the Islamic State in the DRC

March 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The United States has offered a reward of five million dollars (about 4.7 million euros) for information leading to the arrest of the leader of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed group, Musa Baluku, who has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State and is behind hundreds of deaths in recent years in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“Rewards for Justice is offering a reward of up to five million dollars for information about the leader of the Islamic State in the DRC, Musa Baluku,” the program said, adding that the group “attacks, kills, maims, rapes and commits other acts of sexual violence, in addition to kidnapping civilians, including children.

Thus, it has reported that “the group also recruits and uses children during attacks and for forced labor in the territory of Beni”, before adding that “it has unleashed brutal violence against Congolese citizens and regional military forces in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri”.

“The group killed more than 849 civilians in 2020, according to the United Nations Security Council,” he recalled, before stressing that the US State Department designated Baluku in March 2021 as an international terrorist, a label that falls also on the ADF.

The ADF, created in Uganda in the 1990s, 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 flag has been active since then.

The group, especially active in the eastern DRC, may be trying to resume operations in Uganda, from which it withdrew in 2003 after a series of military operations that drastically reduced its ability to carry out attacks in the country. ISCA has claimed several attacks on Ugandan territory in recent months.