Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - A sophisticated network of material support, funding and recruitment has allowed the survival of one of the guerrilla groups operating in North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for years: The ADF (Allied Democratic Forces). This was stated in a recent report by a UN panel that investigated the armed groups operating in the area.
The document, sent to Agenzia Fides by the Peace Network in Congo, says that although the ADF have suffered several defeats after the offensive launched by the Congolese military in 2014, almost all of their leaders are still alive. Their leader, Jamil Mukulu, sanctioned by the UN, disappeared in April with twenty other officers.
The ADF possessed recruitment networks, support and well organized funding, which allowed them to survive and to re-organize themselves after the military operations in 2005 and 2010. These networks, whose members are agents of the ADF, extend from the east of the DRC to Uganda, Rwanda and England. The ADF has a vast recruitment network in Uganda and the DRC, whose agents can, with persuasion, deception or false promises, convince certain individuals to adhere voluntarily to the armed group. Despite the military operations against the ADF, the recruitment network continued to operate also in 2014.
The armed group is composed mainly of Ugandans and Congolese (second largest nationality represented within the group). There are also some Kenyans, Rwandans, Burundians and Tanzanians.
The ADF have a network of financial support that includes local and international sources of funds. For their financing, the ADF have also benefited from the transfer of international funds. The ADF have been responsible for several human rights violations, including forced conversions to Islam.
The UN report also notes that the various armed groups in eastern DRC finance themselves by plundering the immense local natural resources (from cassiterite to timber, from gold to coltan) sold on international markets with the help of networks of international traffickers passing through neighboring countries.
The guerrillas are therefore Congolese interlocutors of international, public and private actors, and not just a local phenomenon. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 12/02/2015)
