UPDF To Recruits Over 1400 LDUs to Hunt ADF
By Our reporter
KAMWENGE – Uganda People Defense Forces has embarked on a recruitment exercise of over 1000 into the force to boost security in South Western Uganda, an area that has been hit by Allied Democratic Front (ADF).
According to UPDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Felix Kulayigye the recruitment into Local Defense Unit (LDU) drive started on Wednesday 27th to Thursday 28th December, 2023, a directive from President Yoweri Museveni to protect locals in the affected areas.
“Each parish is to produce 12 people from the six districts in South Western Uganda of Kasese, Bunyaruguru Kyegeggwa, Kamwenge, Kitagwenda and Kyenjojo. We are targeting 720 in the first phase and the same number in the second phase. One must be a Uganda, aged between 18 – 45 years, have a Primary Leaving Examination Certificate and must be a resident of the affected area,” he said.
Adding, “We should be able to follow-up on his history and that person knows the area he or she is going to guard.”
The recruitment follows ADF intensifying attacks in western Uganda.
An elderly woman and two children died when their house was burnt down on Monday by suspected (ADF) rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group, in a village in western Uganda, local authorities said on Tuesday.
The attack took place in a remote village in the Kamwenge district, already the scene of an attack a week earlier attributed to the ADF in which ten villagers were killed and burnt.
According to the Kamwenge district commissioner, Isiah Byarugaba, interviewed by East African Vanguard, the attackers set fire to a house in which the victims were staying.
“The ADF rebels killed three people, a 72 years old woman and two of her grandchildren. They were burnt to death in their house last night”, he said.
He added that the army and police were in pursuit of the rebels.
“We are on the ground to assess the situation and we are mobilising the local community to prevent such cowardly attacks by ADF terrorists against innocent civilians”, he added.
Originally Ugandan rebels with a Muslim majority, the ADF have been active since the mid-1990s in the eastern DRC, where they have killed thousands of civilians. In 2019, they pledged allegiance to the EI, which now claims some of their actions and presents them as its “central African province”.
Uganda and the DRC launched a joint offensive in 2021 to drive the ADF out of their Congolese strongholds, but have so far failed to put an end to the group’s attacks.
In October, two tourists, a British man and a South African woman on their honeymoon, as well as their guide, were killed in Queen Elizabeth Park (west) in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. In June, 42 people, including 37 pupils, were killed in a secondary school in western Uganda in an attack also attributed to the ADF.
By Our reporter
KAMWENGE – Uganda People Defense Forces has embarked on a recruitment exercise of over 1000 into the force to boost security in South Western Uganda, an area that has been hit by Allied Democratic Front (ADF).
According to UPDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Felix Kulayigye the recruitment into Local Defense Unit (LDU) drive started on Wednesday 27th December, 2023 and January 10th 2024 a directive from President Yoweri Museveni to protect locals in the affected areas.
“Each parish is to produce 12 people from the six districts in South Western Uganda of Kasese, Bunyaruguru Kyegeggwa, Kamwenge, Kitagwenda and Kyenjojo. We are targeting 720 in the first phase and the same number in the second phase. One must be a Uganda, aged between 18 – 45 years, have a Primary Leaving Examination Certificate and must be a resident of the affected area,” he said.
Adding, “We should be able to follow-up on his history and that person knows the area he or she is going to guard.”
The recruitment follows ADF intensifying attacks in western Uganda.
An elderly woman and two children died when their house was burnt down on Monday by suspected (ADF) rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group, in a village in western Uganda, local authorities said on Tuesday.
The attack took place in a remote village in the Kamwenge district, already the scene of an attack a week earlier attributed to the ADF in which ten villagers were killed and burnt.
According to the Kamwenge district commissioner, Isiah Byarugaba, interviewed by East African Vanguard, the attackers set fire to a house in which the victims were staying.
“The ADF rebels killed three people, a 72 years old woman and two of her grandchildren. They were burnt to death in their house last night”, he said.
He added that the army and police were in pursuit of the rebels.
“We are on the ground to assess the situation and we are mobilising the local community to prevent such cowardly attacks by ADF terrorists against innocent civilians”, he added.
Originally Ugandan rebels with a Muslim majority, the ADF have been active since the mid-1990s in the eastern DRC, where they have killed thousands of civilians. In 2019, they pledged allegiance to the EI, which now claims some of their actions and presents them as its “central African province”.
Uganda and the DRC launched a joint offensive in 2021 to drive the ADF out of their Congolese strongholds, but have so far failed to put an end to the group’s attacks.
In October, two tourists, a British man and a South African woman on their honeymoon, as well as their guide, were killed in Queen Elizabeth Park (west) in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. In June, 42 people, including 37 pupils, were killed in a secondary school in western Uganda in an attack also attributed to the ADF.
