AFRICA/DR CONGO - The jihadists hide in the forests of Virunga protected by apparently autonomous local groups

Monday, 14 September 2015

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - The jihadists of the Muslim Defense International (MDI), who have settled in the territory of Beni, in North Kivu province (eastern Democratic Republic of Congo), take advantage of "satellites" groups, composed of young people who are recruited in the area, to sow confusion and protect the "hard core" of the group, made up of people from Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Burundi and Tanzania.
This is what is said in a note sent to Agenzia Fides by the Centre d'Etude pour la Promotion de la Paix, de la Démocratie et les Droits de l'homme (CEPADHO), according to which the assault on a position of the Congolese army in Mamove is clearly attributable to the terrorists of the MDI or ADF-NALU, the old name of the group. Even this acronym change could be part of a strategy of concealment and promotion of confusion. According to the army, six assailants died in the clash, identified generically as Mai-Mai. The Mai-Mai are armed groups, initially born for self-defense, which then transformed into gangs halfway between banditry and guerilla.
"The true jihadists, including several foreigners, are hidden deep in the Virunga National Park, along the river Semuliki, or on some high ground (such as in the Kirotse caves on the mountain in Rwenzori or Mwalika in Bashu)" the statement said. The supplementary local groups "who pretend to be autonomous Mai-Mai groups, are deployed along the edges of the National Road n.4, and cover the space in front of the bastions mentioned above". The young fighters, often former members of other groups demobilized earlier, are recruited by deception.
In this way, the jihadists remain protected by a double wall, formed by the arms of the groups of supporters and by the deception about the fact that they are simple local autonomous formations that are not part of a broader strategy, whose profile remain to be defined. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 14/09/2015)


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