Ugandan security forces have killed hundreds of Islamic State-linked militants in clashes in the nation’s border region, President Yoweri Museveni said.
(Bloomberg) — Ugandan security forces have killed hundreds of Islamic State-linked militants in clashes in the nation’s border region, President Yoweri Museveni said.
The East African nation began a military campaign two years ago against the Allied Democratic Forces active in neighboring Democratic Republic Congo that it blamed for carrying out terror attacks, including bombings in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. The two countries’ armies have focused on fighting jihadist groups in a part of Congo near Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains, Museveni said in a speech on national television on Thursday.
At least 567 militants have been killed, a further 50 have been captured, and dozens of weapons have been confiscated, he said. The two governments are working together to find others members of the ADF, which authorities blame for an attack on a school near the Uganda—Congo border in June that left at least 42 people dead.
“We are hunting for these people,” Museveni said. “The only option for them is to surrender or else they will die.”
ADF began a rebellion in western Uganda in the late 1990s, before fleeing to eastern Congo. The group’s leader, Muhsin Baluku, in September 2020 said the ADF had been disbanded and become an autonomous Islamic State province. The US State Department refers to the ADF as ISIS DRC and has designated the group a terrorist organization.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Uganda in 2021, including bombings that left at least seven people dead.
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