ADF rebels: Kidnapping children and tricking men into establishing caliphate in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

ADF rebels: Kidnapping children and tricking men into establishing caliphate in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. (IBtimes). HT: TracTerrorism.

The Ugandan-led Islamist armed group Allied Democratic Forces, known as ADF-Nalu, may be looking to establish a caliphate in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where it has operated since the late 1990s.

The merger between puritanical Muslim Ugandans from the Sunni Islamic missionary movement Tablighi Jamaat and the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (Nalu), was masterminded by Ugandan rebel leader Jamil Mukulu in western Uganda after they found themselves marginalised following the fall of the dictator Idi Amin.

Pushed out of Uganda, the religious crusaders settled in the dense forest of DRC's eastern borderlands during former President Mobutu Sese Seko's reign (1965-1997).

Three decades down the line, the mysterious rebel group is reported to be using terror tactics - abductions and killings - to establish a caliphate in the eastern province of North Kivu, where fighters claim to own land.

"They told us that these lands belong to them, that they have documents proving that they had bought [the lands] around Beni during the Mobutu era," Adam Kyala Lungalunga, 59, who was kidnapped in November told IBTimes UK. "They want to claw back the authority of these lands."

Beni-based Nicaise Kibel Bel Oka, editor of the newspaper Les Coulisses recently claimed the ADF were exercising "barbarity in the name of sharia law" - the Islamic law. "Islamic terrorism is already very fierce [in the region]," Bel Oka said, adding that the rebels refer to their base as 'Medina'

Like many Islamist sub-groups operating in East Africa and across the Sahel, Bin Hangi confirmed ADF also recruit children. "In their ranks we know that there are children. When they can't recruit them using deceit, they kidnap them by force. We have documented how pupils are kidnapped on their way to school or in the schools. That's how children are enrolled in these groups."Read the full story here.

Obama-appointed US trade adviser linked to illegal deal in Congolese gold

Obama-appointed US trade adviser linked to illegal deal in Congolese gold.(Guardian).A US trade adviser appointed by Barack Obama orchestrated a deal to buy gold worth millions of dollars from a wanted Congolese warlord, according to a UN report.Kase Lawal, a Nigerian-born US oil tycoon, transferred millions of dollars to the notorious rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda between December 2010 and February 2011 as part of the deal, the report by the UN’s Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) states.If true, this would be a contravention of UN resolutions banning individuals or organisations from financing illegal armed groups in the wartorn eastern DRC.The UN report says Lawal, the chairman and chief executive of the Houston-based oil firm Camac, was aware he was paying Ntaganda.Obama put Lawal on the US advisory committee for trade and policy negotiations in September 2010, just months before the deal with Ntaganda.
According to the report, while Lawal was initially under the impression that he was buying gold from an owner in Kenya, he did not abort the deal when he learned Ntaganda was the true owner.
Instead, the UN report says Lawal merely “appeared relieved to finally be engaging directly with the true owner of the gold”.Read the full story here.