International
ISS: Expansion of the Allied Democratic Forces should worry East Africa
The
Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) terror group is broadening its recruitment base
from its traditional pool of Congolese and Ugandan fighters to Kenya and
Tanzania. Countries in the region were made aware of this risk several years
ago. But as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) prepares to join the
East African Community, there is new reason to worry.
In
January, a Kenyan was arrested by the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (FARDC) in the DRC’s north-eastern city of Beni. During the
interrogation, the soft-spoken Salim Mohamed confessed that he and two friends
were migrating from Kenya to South Africa via the DRC in search of better
livelihoods. Their vehicle was attacked by rebels, who held them until they
were captured by FARDC.
It
wasn’t clear where Mohamed’s two alleged friends were. What was clear was that
Mohamed was an ADF member experienced in working with Islamic State in
Mozambique, Somalia, Turkey and Syria. After being released on bail over
terrorism charges in Kenya, he had skipped court in 2020.
The
police declared him missing, armed and dangerous and offered a KES10 000 000
(US$88 000) reward for information on his whereabouts. On the day of his
arrest, a graphic video of Mohamed and two others in ADF regalia surfaced
online. The trio was supervising a child of about five years, beheading a dead
man.
The
FARDC arrested three Tanzanian ADF members in Beni in the first week of
February. According to FARDC spokesman Anthony Mwalushay, this was the first
time Tanzanian nationals were detained as part of the terror group. A week
later Zazrad Saidi, a female Tanzanian from the group, was arrested in Beni.
Interviews with law enforcement in the region indicate that the ADF has also
recruited from Rwanda and Burundi.
The
ADF is a classic example of a ‘nexus’ criminal outfit that is both a terrorist
and a transnational organised crime group. It was formed in 1995 as a
disgruntled coalition of rebel forces determined to topple Uganda’s President
Yoweri Museveni’s government. The group retreated to the eastern DRC, where it
has destabilised the region for years, killing about 6 000 civilians since
2013.
The
ADF has since 2016 transformed itself into an Islamic State-affiliated
terrorist group. It had about 1 300 combatants in 2012, and numbers have
fluctuated in the face of military operations against the group. The ADF also
collaborates with al-Shabaab by training young people in its camps and sending
them to Somalia to fight. The group was added to the United States government’s
list of foreign terrorist organisations in March 2021.
Last
year, even as ADF attacks intensified in eastern DRC, the terror group turned
its attention to Uganda. There was a failed assassination of the country’s
Works and Transport Minister General Katumba Wamala, and an attempted suicide
bomb attack during the burial of the former deputy inspector general of police,
Paul Lokech.
In
early October, Islamic State claimed an assault on a police station in Kampala,
which the police later said they had thwarted. In mid-October, the United
Kingdom issued a warning that terrorists would probably carry out
indiscriminate attacks in Uganda. Days later, 13 ADF suspects, including a
pastor and an engineer, were arrested. On 16 November, two suicide explosions
in central Kampala killed four people and injured 33 while police disarmed two
other bombs.
The
ADF is also a transnational organised crime group. While its tail is
intertwined in illicit business activities in eastern DRC, its head is embedded
in Uganda with terror financing and money laundering.
In
the DRC, the group profits from taxation on illegal timber production in
Eringeti and gold mines near Bialose village along the Lesse River. ‘The ADF’s
motive is purely terror,’ according to a source from the Goma region who works
with victims of the group. ‘They terrorise the communities and chase people
away from their lands in order to have access to the mines.’
The
ADF controls many mines in the north of Beni and partly finances its activities
by illegally exporting other minerals such as wolframite, coltan and
cassiterite. This backs the argument that the group’s primary motive is
organised crime facilitated by terror tactics.
In
Uganda, businesspeople in the petroleum and real estate industries fund and
launder proceeds of the terror group. This was evidenced by the October 2021
arrest of three people accused of financing the ADF to the tune of USh1.8
billion ($US 506 000).
The
East African Community aims to enhance a regional market, create a customs
union and a single currency, and forge a political federation among its member
states. This, together with the DRC joining the body, will enable the free
movement of East Africans across a much wider region.
The
ADF could use these advances for its gain, as transnational organised crime
thrives with development. The movement of weapons and fighters would also be
easier, which could facilitate the group’s growth and attacks in East Africa.
This aligns with the Islamic State’s expansionist agenda of creating provinces
worldwide.
The
DRC has acknowledged that it faces dire security problems in its eastern
regions and is keen on a regional drive to tackle the protracted conflict. The
East African Community won’t benefit from the enormous value the DRC brings to
the economic bloc unless it deals with the intensifying ADF threat.
East
African heads of state need to agree on a common approach to dismantling the
ADF. As a first step, the region should revise its anti-terrorism strategy and
draw up an organised crime strategy for member states.
Written
by Mohamed Daghar, Regional Coordinator – Eastern Africa, ENACT, ISS Nairobi,
Richard Chelin, Senior Researcher, ENACT, ISS Pretoria and Mohamed Haji,
freelance researcher on counter-terrorism.
Source:
www.defenceweb.co.za