HRF condemns the campaign of mass atrocities perpetrated by an Islamic State-affiliated militia in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). HRF deplores the failure of the DRC regime and the international community to protect the millions of people caught between armed groups and Congolese armed forces, even as a UN Fact-Finding Mission found all sides to be responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Last week, @Amnesty International published a report documenting atrocities committed by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) — also known as the Islamic State Central Africa Province — including murders, abductions, forced labor, forced marriage, sexual violence against women and girls, and the recruitment of children as young as 10 across North Kivu and Ituri provinces.

The ADF has also carried out bomb attacks in neighboring Uganda, prompting the deployment of Ugandan troops in joint military operations with Congolese forces since November 2021. The joint operations, known as Operation Shujaa, registered some successes but dispersed ADF fighters into a wider geographical area. ADF exploited the redeployment of Congolese forces against the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group to expand its operations and embed itself in local criminal economies.

The resilience of the ADF, founded in 1995, is the result of its exploitation of a weak Congolese state presence, a lawless environment of armed conflict and violence, and predation of natural resources in areas on the Uganda-DRC border.