DR Congo: Have the ADF booked an appointment with the Intervention Brigade

New Vision ( Uganda ) reports

ADF kill three in DR Congo
By Raymond Baguma

                ADF clashes with DR Congo troops have recently led to a surge in refugees in Uganda   newvision

Suspected rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) on Monday killed three people and abducted thirty others in the Watalinga Sector, North Kivu, DR Congo.

The MONUSCO-run Radio Okapi quoted a local community leader identified as Saambili Bamukoka who said that the attacks occurred in the villages of Kombo, N'Dama, Kikura in Watalinga. The attacked villages are located more than 90 kilometers from Beni.

I almost get the feeling this is a coordinated  exercise by various rebel groups to piss off MONUSCO, The Intervention Brigade ( Africa Brigade ) and FARDC. The ADF do have support from Somalia but not on the scale that M23 gets from Rwanda and nobody is going to go into bat for them should they run up against the various forces that are arrayed against them.    

Omar Kavota, the vice president and spokesman of the local civil society in North Kivu condemned the abductions. According to the civil society, the abductees also included eight miners. ( Minors I think, although there are many minerals in the region )

Kavota said that the local population had fled from the affected the sector of Watalinga and sought refuge in another village called Lwanoli.

Radio Okapi reported that a joint mission of MONUSCO and UN humanitarian agencies had visited the affected areas to assess the security and food security in the area.

I hope there were more than a few intelligence analysts in the MONUSCO team. 

Recently, eastern DR Congo areas have experienced intermittent attacks launched by the ADF rebels who operate bases in east of the country.

In July, over 20,000 Congolese fled to Bundibugyo following clashes in the areas of Kamango in eastern DRC.

Early this month, regional leaders under the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) asked the recently formed combative 
Intervention Brigade under MONUSCO to attack positions of foreign negative forces operating in DRC, including the ADF. 

Something I think they will particularly enjoy when it comes to tiding up this little mess.

According to Radio Okapi, the head of the community Watalinga called for a rapid deployment of special units of the army and blue helmets in the area to secure the population.

The ministry of defense spokesperson, Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, was not available for comment. 

However, during a press conference on Tuesday, the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Katumba Wamala, said that he had held a meeting recently with the head of MONUSCO over the presence of  ADF rebels in DR Congo.

“He told me that MONUSCO is about to change the way it is doing business. We are hopeful that MONUSCO is going to deal with them (ADF rebels). But we will be willing to partner with the intervention brigade to deal with the ADF problem,” added Gen. Katumba. 

I suspect that the ADF haven't thought through the consequences of this little bit of murderous adventurism. I hope the price that is extract in return is so high that we will never again have to read about these pricks.