Kampala, Uganda — The Ugandan army says its troops have killed eleven members of the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, when they tried to enter Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The army says another eight ADF fighters were captured along with their weapons.

The Ugandan army says about 30 members of the rebel ADF entered Uganda Monda night through the Western town of Ntoroko, along the Semliki River.

Colonel Deo Akiiki, the Uganda People's Defense Forces Deputy spokesperson, tells VOA they had been monitoring attempts by the ADF to re-enter Uganda.

Several ADF fighters remain on the loose, he says.

"And the fight is still on to pick [them up] one by one until the whole of this group that passed the border into Semliki area is completely destroyed," said Akiiki.

In November 2021, the Ugandan army sent troops to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in a joint offensive with the Congolese army against the ADF rebels.

Colonel Akiiki believes the ADF's motivation for Monday's incursion was to show they are still active and to carry out reprisal attacks on civilians.

"We don't only go to DRC to fight them, but we also protect our frontiers. And that's how they were intercepted. They thought probably we don't have enough troops on the borders. That was a miscalculation and indeed they will regret it," said Akiiki.

To mark the one-year anniversary of their operation in November, the armies of Uganda and DR Congo extended Operation Shuja, loosely translated as operation of the brave, for another year.

The Allied Democratic Forces launched its first attack against the Ugandan government in 1995 and has operated for years along border areas of Uganda and eastern Congo.

Since it was founded, the group is reported to have killed more than 700 civilians and has battled with the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUSCO.