Uganda, DRC troops seize arms cache from ADF rebels

KAMPALA, Uganda | Xinhua | Ugandan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) troops have recovered a cache of weapons belonging to the rebel group, Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), in the jungles of the eastern DRC, a senior official said Thursday.

Bilal Katamba, spokesperson of the Mountain Division of the Uganda People’s Defense Forces, said that the weapons were discovered during ongoing joint military operations against the ADF.

The cache was found in Sector Three, near River Talia Bridge in the DRC’s North Kivu Province on Wednesday. “During the intelligence-led operation conducted by the joint forces, one 160 mm mortar, two rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) launchers, one RPG shell, one submachine gun (SMG), seven rounds of PKM, and one round of SMGs were recovered,” said Katamba.

These weapons are believed to have been hidden by the fleeing rebels last year when they were pushed out of Mwalika Valley by the joint forces and scattered northwest of the Beni Komanda road in Ituri province.

Additionally, one ADF rebel was killed by joint forces in Masizi, 10 km northwest of Boga in the DRC’s Ituri Province on Tuesday. The ADF, a branch of the Islamic State in Central Africa, is a rebel group that has been operating in the jungles of the eastern DRC, causing havoc in villages in the region.

Joint military operations against the ADF began in November 2021, shortly after the ADF launched bomb attacks in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. ■