Ugandan Government To Withdraw Soldiers Fighting ADF In DR Congo

The Ugandan government has decided to withdraw troops from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in two weeks, the military confirmed on Tuesday, reported The East African.

Last year in December, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had approved the deployment of hundreds of soldiers in the east Congo to join the Congolese military in an assault on the bases of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). The troops have since been working together to eliminate the armed group.

“Operation Shujaa will officially cease in about two weeks according to our original agreement,” General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, commander of Uganda’s land forces, said on Twitter, using the operation’s codename which means “the strong one” in Swahili.

“It was supposed to last for six months. Unless I get further instructions from our Commander in Chief or CDF, I will withdraw all our troops from DRC in two weeks,” added Kainerugaba, who is also Museveni’s son.

The Ugandan government has not given any reason for the withdrawal or update on the status of the operation against the ADF.

Uganda’s deployment of at least 1,700 soldiers constituted the largest foreign intervention in Congo in over a decade, apart from a United Nations peacekeeping operation.

The ADF has been based in Congo since the late 1990s. It is accused of killing hundreds of villagers in frequent raids over the past two years. The group became the deadliest of scores of outlawed forces in the deeply troubled region.

The Ugandan government also blamed the group for the November 16 triple suicide bombing in its capital Kampala, in which seven people were killed including the bombers.

Since April 2019, some ADF attacks in eastern DRC have been claimed by the Islamic State group (IS), which describes the group as its local offshoot, the Islamic State Central Africa Province.

Last year, the United States placed the ADF on its list of terrorist organizations linked to IS.