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.
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 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 2020 Democratic Republic of the Congo attacks were a series of attacks which took place in 2020. The attacks were mostly carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a radical Islamist rebel group and the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO), an agricultural and religious group made up of ethnic Lendu people. The attacks left at least 1,316 people dead and 132 injured.
Events in the year 2021 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Attacks were carried out by various armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2021 and 2022. The attacks have killed 629 and injured 321. At least 82 perpetrators were also killed and one injured in these attacks.
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.
The Kishishe massacre occurred from November 29 to December 1, 2022, in the North Kivu village of Kishishe in the Rutshuru Territory in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The March 23 Movement, a predominantly Tutsi armed group, summarily killed at least 131 civilians in Kishishe following clashes with local militias, according to a preliminary United Nations investigation. At the same time, the Kinshasa authorities had previously reported approximately 300 fatalities. The attack also resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people who were forced to flee to other locations such as Kanyabayonga, Kibirizi, Kashala, Kirima, Nyanzale, Kashalira, Bambu, and Kitchanga. Some victims also sought refuge in neighboring countries due to the ongoing violence and instability in the region.
During 8–9 March 2023, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) carried out a massacre in the village of Mukondi in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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.
The Battle of Darak, also called the Darak massacre, occurred on June 9, 2019, when Boko Haram fighters loyal to Abubakar Shekau attacked a Cameroonian and MNJTF military base in Darak, Far North Region. The attack was the deadliest in Cameroonian history since the start of the Boko Haram insurgency.
Between January 28 and 30, 2020, the Islamic State – Central Africa Province (ISCAP) killed at least seventy-three people in a series of massacres in Oicha Territory, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The attacks spanned across several towns, especially Mantumbi, Manzingi, and Mamove.
On October 20, 2020, jihadists from the Islamic State – Central Africa Province (ISCAP) raided the prison and neighboring military camp in Kangbayi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, releasing 1,335 prisoners of the original 1,456.
On October 31, 2020, jihadists from the Islamic State's Central Africa Province (ISCAP) attacked the village of Lisasa, Beni Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing over twenty-one civilians after brief clashes with UPLC Mai-Mai militiamen. The massacre came just several days after ISCAP slaughtered nineteen civilians in the village of Baeti.
On December 31, 2020, jihadist militants from the Islamic State affiliate Allied Democratic Forces attacked the village of Tingwe, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least thirty people. Several other civilians were kidnapped as well.
On January 4, 2021, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces attacked the village of Mwenda, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 23 people. The massacre came several days after an attack on Tingwe that killed over 30 people.
On March 12, 2023, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces attacked the village of Kirindera, Beni Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing nineteen civilians. The massacre occurred days after the Mukondi massacre, where the ADF/ISCAP killed around forty civilians,
At 2am on March 15, 2021, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces attacked the town of Bulongo, Beni Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 15 people.
On the night between May 30 and 31, 2021, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces attacked the towns of Boga and Tchabi, killing a total of fifty-seven civilians and injuring forty-seven others. The attacks were one of the deadliest massacres ever perpetrated by the ADF since its founding in the 1990s.
On July 22, 2021, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces ambushed a convoy of civilians returning from a market along a highway between Mayi-Moya and Chani-chani, Beni Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sixteen civilians were killed in the ambush, and nine more were injured.
Islamic State - Central Africa Province