The Allied Democratic Forces: Moving beyond popular narratives

Lindsay Scorgie, Al Jazeera


A little known rebel group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), is suspected of being behind attacks on a town called Kamango in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on July 11 - attacks which have resulted in a humanitarian emergency as more than 60,000 refugees have streamed into eastern Uganda over the past week and a half.

Civilians being uprooted and forced to flee is of course not a rare occurrence in the DRC and wider Great Lakes region these days. What is more unusual in the case of events this past week and a half, however, is the astounding lack of information and understanding about both the attacks on Kamango, and the rebel group that stands accused of committing the violence. Media, regional governments, and international actors and observers, are unable to explain the motivations behind the attack - or even confirm that it is indeed the ADF that has caused the violence.

Such a dearth of information is a persistent pattern when it comes to the ADF. This is a trend that has resulted in descriptions of the group being riddled with inaccuracies, ultimately confusing any attempts of appropriately dealing with the rebels.

An Islamic, foreign armed group?
The United Nations Group of Experts on the DRC continually describes the ADF as a “Ugandan-led Islamist rebel group”. This is similar to how the majority of reports on the ADF characterise the group. There are two misleading assumptions showcased in such descriptions, however: the ADF is neither foreign to the DRC, nor is it necessarily a predominantly Islamic rebel group.

Democratic Republic of Congo's key armed groups

Global Post 

While the M23 rebellion has monopolised the headlines on eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for over a year, a myriad of other armed groups also operate in the region.

They fight against the government or against other armed groups, in a series of often shifting alliances, and prey on the civilian population.

Here is a selection of some key forces:

M23: Army mutineers, for the most part Congolese Tutsi who speak the Rwandan language Kinyarwanda. Former rebels, they were integrated into the DRC army in 2009 but mutinied in April 2012, complaining that the peace deal had not been fully implemented. Kinshasa and the UN accuse the group of being backed by Rwanda and to a lesser extent by Uganda -- a charge denied by both Kigali and Kampala. M23 briefly seized and occupied Goma in November 2012 and recently resumed fighting against the Congolese army. The group's members have been fighting in the ranks of one force or another since the early 1990s. Estimating their number is difficult since an internal split resulted in many deaths and a wave of defections.

ALLIED DEMOCRATIC FORCES (ADF): Beginning as a group of Ugandan rebels opposed to the regime of President Yoweri Museveni, it has since also developed an Islamist agenda. Based in the Rwenzori mountains that straddle the Uganda/DR Congo border. Estimates as to their number vary from "several hundred to 1,300."

DEMOCRATIC FORCES FOR THE LIBERATION OF RWANDA (FDLR): Rwandan Hutu rebels