The UPDF has launched yet another offensive of air and artillery against the Allied Democratic Forces targeting mainly new camps for the group.
President Museveni confirmed the development in a brief statement on Monday evening.
" I take this opportunity to inform you that on Saturday morning, our long-range assets paid a visit to the authors of the plan to kill Ugandans with home-made bombs. Those bankrupt criminals, were in the areas of Mambasa territory, beyond the areas we had been allowed to operate in by the Congo government, initially," Museveni said.
The president's statement confirmed this website's reports last week that the Congolese government had allowed the UPDF to go after the ADF where they had run to.
" We are awaiting the reports of the post-attack assessment to judge whether the criminals escaped or have, finally, paid for their sins. If, however, they escape this time, they won't the next one."
Uganda and the DRC government recently extended the agreement for the joint operations between the UPDF and FARDC .
Under the new arrangement, the operation will be extended to the territory of Mambasa in Ituri province where the ADF fighters have run to.
The new area of operation will see the ADF followed to the western part of the Luna-Komanda road, particularly in the chiefdoms of Babila Bakwanza and Babila Babombi, in Mambasa territory.
According to Ryan O'Farrell is a Senior Analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, the new authorization, would cover most of the ADF's area of operations that Shujaa has not yet targeted, including the ADF's headquarters at Butani hill, located 25km west of Route nationale 4(RN4) near the Ituri river.
President Museveni recently said because of the heavy fire against ADF , the group has now extended further to as far as Mambasa but noted Uganda has mooted a plan to DRC government to have them completely wiped out and areas secured.
He said operation Shuja has combed sector one and two which are areas directly West and North West of Mountain Rwenzori where the ADF used to hide and launch attacks, prompting them to run further.
"We have the capacity to destroy them [ADF rebels] even from long distance. So if the DR Congo government allows us, we can finish them. We have shared with the Congo government our concepts which include the mobile forces, zonal forces and the LDUs, etc," Museveni said.
Designated as a terrorist group by the US government, ADF 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 Islamic State group has in the past claimed that ADF is its Central African offshoot.
The ADF has since been specifically named as Islamic State in DRC to move away from being referred to as the Central Africa Province of ISIS/ ISIL.
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The Bridgeway Foundation, a US charity organization recently indicated that Operation Shuja has dealt a heavy blow on ADF inside DRC.
For example, the organization noted that over 358 members of ADF who have left the group due to the pressure from the Ugandan army.
Recently, the UPDF displayed a cache of weapons and ammunition which was seized from the Allied Democratic Forces(ADF) rebel and extremist group in the Democratic Republic of Congo( DRC).
The cache of 151 weapons also included bullets and various types of guns, including 142 submachine guns(SMG), eight pieces of PMK Machine guns, one 60 millimeters mortar, 111 military, 45 radio charger ports and 10 batteries has been seized in the past one year or so during the joint operation with the DRC army, FARDC since November 2021.
