DR Congo: " Russian roulette in the waiting room Empty chambers embracing the end "

New Vision reports:
UN gunships strike ADF base in Congo  

KINSHASA - UN gunships targeted a base of the Ugandan Muslim rebel group ADF-Nalu in the eastern DR Congo for the first time Saturday, the UN force said.

The Congolese army had in recent weeks taken the lead in the drive to root out ADF-Nalu, one of the oldest but lesser known armed organisations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Also one of the most brutal. In September last year it was becoming apparent that the ADF like all the rebel groups in the Kivus were hell bent on booking appointments with the FARDC / MONUSCO / Intervention ( Africa ) Brigade alliance.

" 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."

What has been impressive is the way the alliance has waited and not allowed any of the rebel groups killers or the respective governments they are allegedly trying to overthrow stampede them into precipitous action.   

A statement from MONUSCO, the UN mission in the country, said two attack helicopters struck an ADF base northeast of Beni at 1255 GMT.

Beni is a remote town in North Kivu, a restive resource-rich province that borders Rwanda and Uganda.

"This operation, conducted with great precision, helps achieve a clear goal: bringing an end to ADF's recent attacks against the civilian population," said MONUSCO chief Martin Kobler, quoted in the statement.

The advantage of taking your time and planning, time spent in preparation is rarely wasted time in a military context. I think the less clear goal is the elimination of ADF or put more crudely providing them with an opportunity to discuss their crimes against humanity more directly with Allah than prayer allows.

The FARDC regular army launched its offensive against ADF-Nalu on January 16 and announced in mid-February that it had inflicted severe losses on the rebels.

Good.

Backed by a newly-formed UN intervention brigade with an unprecedented offensive mandate, the Congolese army notched up a rare military victory against the M-23 Tutsi rebel group.

FARDC was a joke but that is not the case now. From Jason Stearns at Congo Siasa: 

" In addition, the army is now giving more prominence to the commando battalions, the 321 and 322 trained by the Belgians (a third is currently being trained in Kindu), the 391 trained by the Americans, and one by the Chinese (on the northern front line in Tongo). During the operations last year, these battalions had been mismanaged by the military hierarchy, which dismantled them, sent them to areas where there was little to do, and "sabotaged them by sending them into battle without supplies or knowledge of the terrain," according to one Belgian trainer."

The ADF-Nalu was next on the list.

Actually they almost certainly were not next on the list, that dubious honour fell to the FDLR. I suspect that the ADF went out of their way to try and provoke a confrontation before the alliance was ready. The FDLR fools have responded to being relegated to third in line for elimination by issuing a suicide note that I suspect will be read and responded to as soon as this mess is cleaned up.

MONUSCO has vowed to help Kinshasa rid the region of the myriad rebel groups running amok in one of the continent's most impenetrable regions.

The key difference between M23 and both the ADF and the FDLR is that M23 had a bolt hole in the form of Uganda and Rwanda, thus their defeat was without the universally fatal consequences that will result from the elimination of the ADF and FDLR. Given that both are sustained by a philosophy of genocide one religious and one racial there deaths will represent no loss to humanity.

ADF-Nalu stands for Allied Democratic Forces-National Army for the Liberation of Uganda. It is one of the oldest but lesser known rebellions based in North-Kivu and is considered the only Islamist organisation in the region.

The Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group said in a report last year the rebel group had "shown remarkable resilience attributable to its geostrategic position, its successful integration into the cross-border economy and corruption in the security forces".

I suspect that both its resilience and success have come to a sudden stop.

ADF-Nalu is led by Jamil Mukulu, a Christian convert to Islam, and has never really managed to take its fight against Yoweri Museveni's regime to Uganda.

Some observers have voiced concern that it could become a link in the growing network of radical Islamist groups in East Africa.

Not anymore. I think that radical muslim groups would do well to have a think about the situation in the Central African Republic, the elimination of the CAR Muslim population is well underway and radical Islamist killers are responsible for creating the conditions in the CAR that caused this. It is an exportable 'cause' far more so than radical Islam in an African context.