Jamil Mukulu | |
---|---|
Born | David Steven 17 April 1964 |
Other names | Jamil Alirabaki, Mazengo David Amos, Lwanga Thomas Musisi, Nicholas Lumu, Philipp Nyanzi, Yafesi, Abdullah Jjungu, Petanguli Kalemire, Denis Kityo Musoke |
Organization | Allied Democratic Forces |
Criminal charge(s) | Murder, crimes against humanity DRC: Murder, terrorism ( in absentia ) |
Criminal penalty | DRC: Death (in absentia) [1] Awaiting trial |
Criminal status | In custody, awaiting trial |
Jamil Mukulu (born David Steven) 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. [2]
Jamil Mukulu was born David Steven in the village of Ntoke in the Kayunga District of Uganda on 17 April 1964, to Lutakome Sserwada and Aisha Nakiyemba. Little is known about his early life, except for the fact that he earned a degree in business management in Nairobi, Kenya. [3]
Although born into a Christian family, Steven soon converted to Islam, changed his name to "Jamil Mukulu", and studied abroad in Saudi Arabia, where he was introduced to fundamentalist Islamic ideologies, such as Salafism, and became radicalized. [4] When he returned to Africa, Mukulu became involved in the conflict between the Ugandan Muslim Supreme Council and the Tabliq sect, the latter of which Mukulu belonged to.[ citation needed ]
Mukulu soon began formulating the idea of establishing an Islamic state in Uganda, and, in 1991, he and a group of Tabliq militants attacked the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) headquarters in Old Kampala. Mukulu went to prison for the attack, but was released around 1995. [5]
When Mukulu was released, he joined the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda, a rebel group opposed to the Ugandan government. When the NALU's leader, Amon Bazira, was killed in 1995, Mukulu helped unify numerous separate militant groups into one unit and formed the Allied Democratic Forces, appointing himself as the group's supreme commander. [6] Unable to hold ground in Uganda, Mukulu led his group to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and set up camp in North Kivu.
Between 1996 and 2001, Mukulu's forces carried out numerous bombings, massacres, and other terror attacks in the Congo, killing an estimated 1,000 civilians and displacing over 150,000 others, according to a UN study published in 2002. Mukulu also gained notoriety for ordering his forces to abduct hundreds of children to train as child soldiers. [7] Even though it is one of the longest-surviving terror groups, ADF-NALU is also the only Islamic militant entity in DRCongo. Uganda’s spy agency, the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) has on several occasions linked ADF-NALU to al-Shabaab. Though linked to other groups in the global jihadi firmament, ADF-NALU has not attracted as much attention as Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM), Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), Ansar Dine, al-Shabaab or Boko Haram. [8]
In 2011, Mukulu was placed under sanction by the United Nations for terrorist activities in the Congo.[ citation needed ]
In 2014, a court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo convicted Mukulu of terrorism and murder, and sentenced him to death in absentia .[ citation needed ]
In 2015, Mukulu was arrested by police in Tanzania and repatriated to the custody Uganda, where he was charged with murder, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. He is currently awaiting trial.
Despite being under sentence of death in the Congo, Uganda has refused to turn Mukulu over to Congolese authorities. [9]
Since Mukulu's capture, the ADF has been led by one of his lieutenants, Musa Baluku. [10]
The history of Uganda comprises the history of the people who inhabited the territory of present-day Uganda before the establishment of the Republic of Uganda, and the history of that country once it was established. Evidence from the Paleolithic era shows humans have inhabited Uganda for at least 50,000 years. The forests of Uganda were gradually cleared for agriculture by people who probably spoke Central Sudanic languages. The Empire of Kitara grew out of the Urewe culture in the 10th century. Following the migration and invasion of Luo peoples c. 15th century, Kitara would collapse, and from the ashes rose various Biito kingdoms such as Bunyoro alongside Buganda.
The Allied Democratic Forces is an Islamist rebel group in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It considered a terrorist organisation by the Ugandan government and the United States. 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.
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.
On 11 July 2010, suicide bombings were carried out against crowds watching a screening of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final at two locations in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. The attacks left 74 dead and 85 injured. Al-Shabaab, an Islamist militia based in Somalia that has ties to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the blasts as retaliation for Ugandan support for AMISOM. In March 2015, the trial of 13 Kenyan, Ugandan and Tanzanian alleged perpetrators of the bombings began at the High Court of Uganda.
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."
Al-Shabaab, also known as Ansar al-Sunna or Ahlu Sunna Wal Jammah, is an Islamist militant group active in Cabo Delgado Province, Mozambique. Since October 2017, it has waged an insurgency in the region, seeking to undermine the secular FRELIMO government and establish an Islamic state. It has occasionally captured territory from the government and has been accused of committing atrocities against civilians.
Musa Seka Baluku is a Ugandan militant and the current leader of the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel insurgent group in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He took over as the commander of the ADF following the 2015 arrest of its former leader, Jamil Mukulu, in Tanzania.
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, Mozambique and Uganda. 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; as a result, this leaves IS-CAP to operate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
Dusman Abassi Sabuni was a Ugandan military officer. Born in Lira, Uganda, he became an officer in the Uganda Army following the completion of his secondary schooling. After Colonel Idi Amin's 1971 military coup, Sabuni quickly rose through the ranks and was made brigadier general and Minister of Industry. Sabuni fled the country in 1979 after Amin's overthrow during the Uganda–Tanzania War, but was detained by Kenyan authorities and sent back to Uganda. Sources disagree on the details of his later life, though it is known that he served as important rebel leader in the 1990s.
Events in the year 2021 in Uganda.
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.
Mamadou Mustafa Ndala was a colonel in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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 16 June 2023 rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a jihadist group linked 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.
Operation Shujaa is an ongoing military offensive conducted by the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda against insurgent forces in Kivu and Ituri, mainly Islamic State (IS) affiliates and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). Launched in November 2021, it has resulted in significant losses for the targeted rebel forces and substantially reduced their activity. At times, the government forces engaged in Operation Shujaa have also fought non-ADF/IS rebel groups.