US Announces UGX 18 Billion Bounty On ADF Leader Seka Musa Baluku
The U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program, is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the identification or location of ISIS-DRC leader Seka Musa Baluku.
Seka Musa Baluku, also known as Lumonde, Lumu, Musa, and Mzee Kajaju, and Makuba, was born in Uganda around 1977. He was an early member of the armed group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
Baluku rose to become the organization’s second-in-command under ADF founder Jamil Mukulu. He assumed command of the group after Mukulu’s arrest in Tanzania in 2015.
The ADF which the Islamic State group claims are its central African affiliate is one of the deadliest armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a volatile region that has been plagued by violence for decades and also carrying out bomb attacks in Uganda.
Under the leadership of Baluku the militia “kills, maims, rapes, and commits other sexual violence and engages in the abduction of civilians, including children”, the embassy said.
Baluku is a Ugandan national, according to the US State Department, who is likely in his late 40s.
In 2021, the United States officially linked the ADF to the Islamic State group and added it to its list of foreign terrorist organisations.
In March 2021, the Department of State designated Baluku as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). The U.S. Department of the Treasury also sanctioned Baluku and five other ADF members in 2019 under the Global Magnitsky sanctions program for their roles in serious human rights abuse. In 2020, the UN designated Baluku for additional sanctions under its DRC sanctions program.
As a result of these designations, among other consequences, all property and interests in property of those designated that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them.
Foreign financial institutions that knowingly conduct or facilitate any significant transaction on behalf of Baluku or ISIS-DRC could be subject to U.S. correspondent account or payable-through account sanctions. Additionally, it is a crime to knowingly provide material support or resources to ISIS-DRC or to attempt or conspire to do so.
The ADF was previously sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the United Nations under the UN Security Council’s DRC sanctions regime in 2014 for its violence and atrocities.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury also sanctioned Baluku and five other ADF members in 2019 under the Global Magnitsky sanctions program for their roles in serious human rights abuse. In 2020, the UN designated Baluku for additional sanctions under its DRC sanctions program.
