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Ugandan troops have crossed into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as part of a joint operation against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group accusing both neighboring countries of massacring civilians.
The two countries said on Tuesday morning that the group, the dozens of deadly militias facing the mineral-rich east of the DRC, had been bombed. artillery and air strikes. Ugandan army spokeswoman Flavia Byekwaso said in a statement that “the targets were met with precision”.
Subsequently, a number of Ugandan soldiers joined the DRC at the Nobili border post in North Kivu state, a United Nations source and an aide told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.
“It’s a pillar made up of well-armed foot troops, followed by armored vehicles,” the aide said.
The videos shared on social media also showed soldiers advancing in uniform with the Ugandan flag.
DRC government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said the two sides had decided to cooperate more.
“It was agreed after an assessment to continue with the in-depth operations of the special forces of the two countries to clear the positions of the terrorist concerned,” he said on Twitter on Tuesday night.
DRC army spokesman Leon-Richard Kasonga said in a statement that “for the time being, Congolese special forces assisted by Ugandan special units will conduct search and control operations to clear and secure ADF positions affected by this morning’s strikes.”
“This part of the eastern DRC is full of forests,” said Malcolm Webb of Al Jazeera, who has reported extensively in the region.
“It’s so thick that when you take a step down dirt roads it can even be impossible for that vegetation to pass through. Within these forests are the ADF’s hiding places and hidden bases. It is a very difficult area to hunt down an armed group that uses guerrilla tactics, and that is one of the reasons why previous attempts to remove the ADF have been difficult. “
The Congolese government’s latest offer was in May, which put North Kivu and eastern Ituri provinces in a “state of siege” to escalate a military offensive against fighters as soldiers replaced officials. key positions.
Witnesses earlier reported explosions and artillery fire in the Watalinga district of North Kivu, as well as in the Boga and Tchabi districts, the well-known ADF hideouts in the nearby Ituri province.
“There is a real panic here at home, mainly because we were not informed of this situation,” neighbor Julien Ngandayabo told Reuters. “We have suffered too much with ADF because our families have been massacred. We are waiting to see if this is the solution. ”
The attacks came two days after a Congolese source told President Felix Tshisekedi that he had given Uganda permission to continue on ADF DRC lands.
The movement is not universally accepted in the DRC, where many critics recall the role Uganda and Rwanda have played in decades of instability in the east of the country.
The ADF is very scary in the eastern DRC. The group was formed in Uganda in 1995 and later moved to DRC. In March, the United States formally joined ISIL (ISIS).
“ADF is a vicious organization that killed thousands of people in the east of the DRC after being properly expelled from Uganda,” Alex Vines, an analyst at Chatham House, Al Jazeera.
The DRC Catholic Church says the ADF has killed about 6,000 civilians since 2013, and a respected monitor, the Kivu Security Tracker, has since 2017 blamed more than 1,200 deaths in the Beni area of North Kivu alone.
Ugandan authorities recently accused the ADF or a local group linked to it of carrying out or planning attacks.
On November 16, there were four people hil and 33 suicide bombers twice injured in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, police blamed on a “domestic terror group” linked to the ADF.
The explosions claimed by ISIL (ISIS) occurred after a bomb attack a roadside dining room a woman was killed on October 23, and a suicide bombing on a bus near Kampala on October 25 injured several people.
In late October, Ugandan police said they had arrested members of the alleged ADF who they believed were “preparing a new attack on large facilities”.
Uganda has also accused the ADF of thwarting a bomb attack in August at the funeral of an army commander who led a major offensive against the Somali armed group al-Shabab.
The three men were charged with “terrorism” on Nov. 5 in connection with the incident.
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