Operation Shuja: Top ADF Commander Benjamin Kisokorania Captured By Congo Army

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Top ADF Commander Benjamin Kisokorania Captured By Congo Army

Top ADF Commander Benjamin Kisokorania

By Uganda Online Media

President Yoweri Museveni has appointed Maj Tom Magambo who has been in the Internal Security Organisations(ISO) as the new police Criminal Investigations Director.

“President Museveni has promoted Private Tom Magambo to the rank of Major and appointed him Director Criminal Investigations of the Uganda Police Force,” the acting UPDF spokesperson, Lt Col Ronald Kakurungu said in a statement.

Kampala: A top Allied Democratic Forces commander identified as Benjamin Kisokorania has been captured in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kisokorania was captured by the Congolese army at Uvira in the South Kivu province as he returned from neighboring Burundi.

Kisokorania is said to be one of the original members of the Allied Democratic Forces during the times of incarcerated leader Jamilu Mukulu.

Whereas details about the arrest of the ADF commander are still scanty, the development will boost the ongoing joint operation by the UPDF and the Congolese army, FADRC targeting ADF hideouts.

On November 30, the joint forces launched air and artillery strikes on ADF camps in an operation code-named Shuja.

Both armies have since then overrun several ADF camps, the biggest being Kambi Ya Yua estimated to have held at least 600 fighters and measured over eight acres wide whereas several bomb-making materials, a gun and a set up of a command post were recovered.

The ADF has for several years operated in the volatile North Kivu which borders other provinces including Ituri to the north and South Kivu to the South and has been a battleground for a number of rival armed ethnic groups since 1998.

The province consists of three cities including; Goma, Butembo and Beni as well as six territories—Beni, Lubero, Masisi, Rutshuru.

According to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the ADF which was designated as a terrorist group by the US government has used the name Madina at Tauheed Wau Mujahedeen (City of Monotheism and Holy Warriors—MTM) to refer to emphasize its links to the Islamic State.

In 2019, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for an ADF attack and first referenced a “Central Africa Province.”

The organization is led by Musa Baluku, who served as a senior ADF Islamic legal official before consolidating power following Mukulu’s 2015 arrest.

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