The earliest known human settlements in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been dated back to the Middle Stone Age, approximately 90,000 years ago. The first real states, such as the Kongo, the Lunda, the Luba and Kuba, appeared south of the equatorial forest on the savannah from the 14th century onwards.
The Allied Democratic Forces is an Islamist rebel group in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), considered a terrorist organisation by the Ugandan government. It was originally based in western Uganda but has expanded into the neighbouring DRC. Most Ugandan ADF fighters are Muslims from the Baganda and Basoga ethnic groups.
Salim Saleh is a retired Ugandan military officer who served in the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF), the armed forces of Uganda. He is a brother to the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, and an adviser to the President on military matters. He served as Minister of State for microfinance from 2006 to 2008. Saleh has featured in controversies regarding corruption, including being implicated by the UN Security Council for plundering natural resources in Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Terrorism in Uganda primarily occurs in the north, where the Lord's Resistance Army, a militant Christian religious cult that seeks to overthrow the Ugandan government, has attacked villages and forcibly conscripted children into the organization since 1988. The al-Shabbab jihadist group has also staged attacks in the country.
The Kivu conflict is an umbrella term for a series of protracted armed conflicts in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo which have occurred since the end of the Second Congo War. Including neighboring Ituri province, there are more than 120 different armed groups active in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Currently, some of the most active rebel groups include the Allied Democratic Forces, the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo, the March 23 Movement, and many local Mai Mai militias. In addition to rebel groups and the governmental FARDC troops, a number of national and international organizations have intervened militarily in the conflict, including the United Nations force known as MONUSCO, and an East African Community regional force.
The National Army for the Liberation of Uganda was a rebel group opposed to the Ugandan government. It was formed in 1988 in western Uganda and moved into eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it merged with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), another Ugandan rebel group.
Edward Katumba Wamala, more commonly known as Katumba Wamala, is a Ugandan general who serves as Minister of Works and Transport in the Ugandan cabinet, since 14 December 2019.
The United Nations Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) is a military formation which constitutes part of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). It was authorized by the United Nations Security Council on 28 March 2013 through Resolution 2098. Although it is not the first instance in which the use of force was authorized by the UN, the Force Intervention Brigade is the first UN peacekeeping operation specifically tasked to carry out targeted offensive operations to "neutralize and disarm" groups considered a threat to state authority and civilian security. In this case, the main target was the M23 militia group, as well as other Congolese and foreign rebel groups. While such operations do not require the support of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), the Force Intervention Brigade often acts in unison with the FARDC to disarm rebel groups.
The Allied Democratic Forces insurgency is an ongoing conflict waged by the Allied Democratic Forces in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, against the governments of those two countries and the MONUSCO. The insurgency began in 1996, intensifying in 2013, resulting in hundreds of deaths. The ADF is known to currently control a number of hidden camps which are home to about 2,000 people; in these camps, the ADF operates as a proto-state with "an internal security service, a prison, health clinics, and an orphanage" as well as schools for boys and girls.
The 2017 Semuliki attack was an attack carried out by elements of the Allied Democratic Forces on a United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) operating base in the Beni Territory, North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on December 7, 2017. The attack was highly coordinated and resulted in the deaths of fifteen U.N. peacekeeping personnel and wounds to 53 others making it the deadliest incident for the U.N. since the deaths of twenty-four Pakistani peacekeepers in an ambush in Somalia in 1993. The attack was among many of the latest flare-ups in violence in the North Kivu region which borders Uganda and Rwanda and one of the ADF's deadliest attacks in recent history. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres labeled the attack, "the worst attack on UN peacekeepers in the organization's recent history."
Jamil Mukulu is a Ugandan militant leader and suspected war criminal who was the principal founder and former leader of the Allied Democratic Forces, an armed Islamist rebel group in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mukulu was arrested in Tanzania in 2015 and is currently awaiting trial in Uganda for charges such as murder and crimes against humanity.
The Central Africa Province is an administrative division of the Islamic State (IS), a Salafi jihadist militant group and unrecognised quasi-state. As a result of a lack of information, the foundation date and territorial extent of the Central Africa Province are difficult to gauge, while the military strength and activities of the province's affiliates are disputed. The Central Africa Province initially covered all IS activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique. In September 2020, during the insurgency in Cabo Delgado, IS-CAP shifted its strategy from raiding to actually occupying territory, and declared the Mozambican town of Mocímboa da Praia its capital. After this point, however, the Mozambican branch declined and was split off from IS-CAP in 2022, becoming a separate IS province.
Events in the year 2021 in Uganda.
Events in the year 2021 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
From 1986 to 1994, a variety of rebel groups waged a civil war against the Ugandan government of President Yoweri Museveni. Most of the fighting took place in the country's north and east, although the western and central regions were also affected. The most important insurgent factions were the Uganda People's Democratic Army (UPDA), the Uganda People's Army (UPA), Alice Auma's Holy Spirit Movement (HSM), and Joseph Kony's army. Several smaller rebel factions and splinter groups of the larger movements waged their own campaigns; the rebels often clashed with each other. All belligerents, including the government, targeted civilians and committed human rights violations. In course of fighting that involved tens of thousands of troops, the Ugandan government was able to gradually defeat or contain most rebel factions. The operations in the north and east caused great destruction and resulted in high civilian casualties.
Abu Yasir Hassan, also known as "Yaseer Hassan" or as "Abu Qasim", is a Tanzanian national who currently serves as one of the leaders of the Islamic State's Mozambique province. By August 2020, the group had evolved into a proto-state after the group captured Mocímboa da Praia and several other areas of Cabo Delgado Province.
From late October to mid November 2021, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the Islamic State organization carried out four bombing attacks across Uganda.
On the night on June 5, 2022, militants from Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attacked the village of Bwanasura, in Otomabere, North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The attack killed over twenty civilians, marking one of the deadliest attacks by the ADF in 2022.
Between the night of April 3–4, 2022, Allied Democratic Forces jihadists attacked the village of Masambo, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 21 people.
On 16 June 2023 rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a jihadist group speculatively linked by analysts to the Islamic State, attacked a secondary school in Mpondwe, a town in western Uganda's Kasese District on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 42 people were killed, including 38 students; 8 were injured.
Islamic State (IS), Allied Democratic Forces