Ugandan Government Apprehends the Commander of a Terrorist Group Linked to the October Tourist Attack
Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda, giving a speech on security in September 2023. Photo: PPU/NewVision Uganda.
Deo Akiiki, Ugandan deputy military spokesman, announced on Thursday that the Ugandan government had captured the mononymous Njovu, the commander of the militant group ADF, in a raid on Tuesday. Njovu was the only survivor of the raid in which six members of his squad were killed.
Uganda’s government placed responsibility on ADF for the October 17 killings of David and Celia Barlow, a honeymooning couple, along with Eric Ayai, the couple’s Ugandan guide. The group was killed in Queen Elizabeth National Park during a safari trip, when their vehicle was set on fire without a warning. The Islamic State (ISIS), who officially recognized a pledge of allegiance from ADF in 2019, claimed responsibility for the attack in the following days.
Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda, promised on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that the assailants would “pay with their own wretched lives” for, what he called, a “cowardly attack.” Museveni also stated in the post that the Ugandan police “should ensure… that ADF is wiped out” and that “the wiping out is moving very well.”
The Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo militaries launched a joint operation against ADF in December 2021. Throughout this operation, ADF has continued to operate out of the region surrounding the border between Uganda and the DRC, launching attacks on civilians within both countries including machete killings in villages and suicide bombings in urban centers. Museveni said in a statement in September that Uganda had killed 567 members of ADF, since the inception of the operation, asserting that the Islamic militant group was “desperate” and that “the only option for them is to surrender.”
The Ugandan government has foiled numerous ADF attacks in recent months, including a September attempt to bomb churches in Kibibi, a town in southern Uganda. Police recovered six improvised explosive devices in multiple homes in the area with intelligence gathered from a man apprehended by police, who attempted to enter a church with a bomb in his backpack.
The ADF was also responsible for a June attack that killed more than 40, including 37 students, at a secondary school in Kasese in western Uganda. ADF fighters burned, shot, and hacked students to death in what was the deadliest terrorist attack in Uganda in decades. The Kasese attack prompted the Ugandan government to increase their ostensible commitment to defeating ADF and ramp up operations to eradicate the militant group. Felix Kulayigye, defense spokesperson, vowed to “destroy the group” in the wake of the attack, as the assailants fled back over the Uganda-Congo border.
Relatives of victims in the Kasese attack riding with the coffins of their family members. Photo: AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwaddah.
Despite Museveni’s fierce efforts alongside Felix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to eradicate the ADF, the ISIS-linked group continues their operations in both countries amidst frequent attacks by both militaries. The Ugandan Catholic Church reports that ADF has been responsible for approximately 6,000 civilian deaths since 2013.
ADF was established in 1995 to bring down Museveni’s administration, and this has remained their main goal in the following decades. The group poses the most significant threat to Museveni’s position as president. The Ugandan leader has continued to assert that the ADF is at their “tail-end” and will be completely eradicated soon. The capturing of Njovu is a significant achievement by Uganda in their fight to eradicate terrorism within their borders.