Police have arrested the suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) collaborator. The suspect was arrested following close monitoring by the joint border team based in Mutukula.
According to police Spokesperson Fred Enanga, Ssekayiba Ishak was profiled, and the security teams monitored his movements as he crossed the border in a vehicle with a South African registration number plate.
“He has always crossed from Uganda to South Africa and the countries in between. He was found in possession of an assortment of electric wires and security lamps, and arrangements are in place to have them handed to the country’s terrorism headquarters here in Kampala,” Enanga told journalists.
Abdul Rashid Kyoto, alias Njovu, the alleged commander of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel unit in Mwalika in Eastern DR Congo, was last year arraigned before court and charged with nine counts, including terrorism, murder, and aggravated robbery, in connection with the October 17, 2023, killing of two British tourists and their Ugandan guide at Queen Elizabeth National Park in Kasese district.
In November 2021, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) launched joint air and artillery strikes against ADF camps.
The attack on ADF camps followed three terror attacks that claimed four lives and injured scores. Police said the first explosive occurred at the Digida Pork Joint in Komamboga, Lungala, along Kampala Masaka Highway, Parliamentary Avenue, and Kampala Central Police Station (CPS).
In June 2022, the ADF attacked Mpondwe Lhubiliriha Secondary School in Nyabugando Parish, Karambi Sub-County, Kasese District. The attack led to the deaths of 42 people, including 37 students.
Since the launch of the attack, at least 567 terrorists have been killed, 144 SMGs, seven machine guns, six RPGs, and 10 IEDs have been recovered, and 50 terrorists have surrendered, while 32 have surrendered.
In 2022, the East African Community (EAC) Heads of State Conclave on Inter-Congolese Dialogue in April 2022 resolved to establish and deploy the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) to pacify the Eastern DRC; however, the President of the DRC, Felix Tshisekedi, declined the EACRF’s mandate after local residents accused the multinational force of cohabiting with the rebels rather than forcing them to lay down arms.
The ADF is historically a Ugandan rebel coalition. It gained a foothold in eastern DR Congo in the 1990s and is linked to the Islamic State group.
While most of the DRC has returned to relative stability after two major regional wars in the 1990s and 2000s, militias and rebel groups roam much of the country’s east, which borders Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.
