ALLIED DEMOCRATIC FORCES (ADF)

CDe.001
ALLIED DEMOCRATIC FORCES (ADF)
Date on which the narrative summary became available on the Committee's website: 
29 October 2014
Date(s) on which the narrative summary was updated: 
5 December 2016
Reason for listing: 

The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) was listed on30 June 2014 pursuant to the criteria set out in paragraph 4 of resolution 2078 (2012).

Additional information: 

The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) was created in 1995 and is located in the mountainous DRC-Uganda border area. According to the United Nations Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (“GoE”) 2013 final report, citing Ugandan officials and UN sources, in 2013 the ADF had an estimated strength of 1,200 to 1,500 armed fighters located in north-east Beni Territory of North Kivu province, close to the border with Uganda. These same sources estimate ADF’s total membership — including women and children — to be between 1,600 and 2,500. Due to offensive military operations by the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) and the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) conducted in 2013 and 2014, ADF dispersed its fighters to numerous smaller bases, and moved women and children to areas west of Beni, and along the Ituri-North Kivu border. The ADF’s military commander is Hood Lukwago and its supreme leader is the sanctioned individual Jamil Mukulu.

The ADF has committed serious violations of international law and UNSCR 2078 (2012), including as detailed below.

The ADF has recruited and used child soldiers in violation of applicable international law (UNSCR paragraph 4 (d)).

The GoE’s 2013 final report stated that the GoE interviewed three former ADF fighters who had escaped during 2013 and who described how ADF recruiters in Uganda lure people to the DRC with false promises of employment (for adults) and free education (for children) and then force them to join the ADF. Also according to the GoE’s report, former ADF fighters told the GoE that the ADF’s training groups typically include adult men and boys and two boys who escaped from the ADF in 2013 told the GoE that they had received military training from the ADF. The GoE report also includes an account of ADF’s training by a “former ADF child soldier”.

According to the GoE’s 2012 final report, the ADF recruits include children, as exemplified by the case of an ADF recruiter who was captured by Ugandan authorities in Kasese with six young boys on his way to the DRC in July 2012.

A specific example of the ADF’s recruitment and use of children is seen in a 6 January 2009 letter from the former Africa Director for Human Rights Watch, Georgette Gagnon, to Uganda’s former Minister of Justice, Kiddhu Makubuyu, stating that a boy named Bushobozi Irumba was abducted at 9 years of age by the ADF in 2000. He was required to provide transport and other services to ADF fighters.

In addition, “The Africa Report” cited allegations that the ADF is allegedly recruiting children as young as 10 years of age as child soldiers and cited a Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) spokesperson as stating that the UPDF rescued 30 children from a training camp on Buvuma Island in Lake Victoria.

The ADF has also committed numerous violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law against women and children, including killing, maiming, and sexual violence (UNSCR paragraph 4 (e)).

According to the GoE 2013 final report, in 2013 the ADF attacked numerous villages, which prompted more than 66,000 people to flee into Uganda. These attacks depopulated a large area, which ADF has since controlled by abducting or killing people who return to their villages. Between July and September 2013, ADF decapitated at least five people in the Kamango area, shot several others, and kidnapped dozens more. These actions terrorized the local population and deterred people from returning home.

The Global Horizontal Note, a monitoring and reporting mechanism of grave violations against children in situations of armed conflict, reported to the Security Council’s Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) that during the October to December 2013 reporting period, ADF was responsible for 14 of the 18 child casualties documented, including in an incident on 11 December 2013, in Beni territory, North Kivu, when ADF attacked the village of Musuku, killing 23 people, including 11 children (three girls and eight boys), aged 2 months to 17 years. All victims had all been severely mutilated with machetes, including two children who survived the attack.

The March 2014 Report of the Secretary General on Conflict Related Sexual Violence identifies the “Allied Democratic Forces — National Army for the Liberation of Uganda” on its list of “Parties credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for rape or other forms of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict.”

The ADF has also participated in attacks against MONUSCO peacekeepers (UNSCR paragraph 4 (i)).

Finally, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) reported that ADF has conducted at least two attacks on MONUSCO peacekeepers. The first, on 14 July 2013, was an attack on a MONUSCO patrol on the road between Mbau and Kamango. This attack is detailed in the 2013 GoE final report. The second attack occurred on March 3, 2014. A MONUSCO vehicle was attacked with grenades ten kilometers from the Mavivi airport in Beni, resulting in injuries to five peacekeepers.

ADF founder and leader, Jamil Mukulu (CDi.015), was arrested in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in April 2015. He was subsequently extradited to Kampala, Uganda in July 2015. As of June 2016, he is being held in a police detention cell awaiting his trial.