DecryptionsThe inhabitants of North Kivu and Ituri, bereaved, do not hide their doubts about the effectiveness of the “Shujaa” intervention supposed to overcome the Allied Democratic Forces, which have killed at least 6,000 civilians since 2013.
Didier* was 10 when he saw the Ugandan army first enter his town, Beni, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It was in the early 2000s, during the “second Congo war”, at the time of deadly fighting between troops and militias in the pay of Kampala, Kigali and Kinshasa. “Ugandan soldiers were killing, raping and looting”, remembers this gardener. Twenty years later, the soldiers are back, but Didier has not encountered any in the streets of his hometown in the province of North Kivu. He barely saw a few Ugandan uniforms in the surrounding villages.
Yet the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) is not hiding. Although the authorities in Kampala have never communicated officially on the number of men they have deployed in the DRC, there were nearly 1,700 at the start of the operation, according to the Reuters news agency. Entered, this time, with the agreement of the Kinshasa authorities and a stated objective: to fight, alongside the Congolese soldiers, the Allied Democratic Forces, better known by the English acronym ADF. A joint operation called “Shujaa” (“hero” in Swahili, one of the regional languages) which is still struggling to bear fruit.
“It’s cinema! »
The offensive, launched on November 30, 2021, resulted for several weeks in Ugandan air and artillery bombardments on areas presented as ADF strongholds in North Kivu and Ituri. On December 24, Captain Antony Mualushayi, spokesperson for the Congolese army, notably announced the capture of the camp ” Kambi ya Jua 2, second great sanctuary of the ADF after Kambi ya Jua 1 »in the territory of Beni.
Two leaders of the armed group were also arrested. Benjamin Kisokeranio was captured in mid-January by Congolese security forces on the border with Burundi, about 700 km south of the area where the two armies operate. This ADF intelligence, finance and supply official had led a breakaway faction since 2019, according to the UN Panel of Experts in a 2021 report. Two weeks later, another rebel, Kenyan Salim Muhammad Rashid , suspected of terrorism and wanted by his country of origin, was apprehended in the Beni region.
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