The U.S. State Department is now considering the Ugandan-born ADF uprising as a terrorist movement affiliated with the Islamic State group. The US authorities even change the name of this movement, which is violent in the eastern DRC and now calls it the Daech-DRC.
as reported from Kinshasa, Patient Ligodi
Individuals or organizations that have a direct or indirect financial connection to the ADFsubject to sanctions. The United States considers any logistical or material support for this group to be a criminal act. Washington also calls for cooperation at the national, sub-regional and international levels to put an end to the economic activities of the ADF.
For his part, researcher Christophe Vogel, a specialist in the dynamics of armed groups based in the eastern DRC, hopes that this categorization will not be limited to the name change and will go as far as a deep understanding of this. ADF as a local and subregional phenomenon.
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Although Islamic State continued to demand responsibility for several attacks committed in the DRC, UN experts could not confirm a link or direct support to ADF fighters, stressed in December 2020, the UN expert group. About DRC.
On the Congolese side, the Minister of Human Rights welcomes this designation and hopes that other nations will follow in the footsteps of the Americans.
This is not the first time that the ADF has been targeted by sanctions. The organization had already been targeted by the US Treasury Department and the United Nations in 2014.
From a political point of view, this represents a change insofar as the ADF’s affiliation with the Islamic State – according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – slightly changes the way in which the ADF will be perceived at the international political level. But it remains to be seen whether the United States will change or strengthen its anti-terrorism commitment to the DRC.
Christoph Vogel, researcher at Gan University in Belgium, specialist in DRC
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