The United States is increasing pressure against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), these Ugandan Muslim insurgents linked to numerous massacres in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. On Tuesday, Washington announced a battery of sanctions against the head of the armed group and five others accused of committing serious human rights violations including mass rape, torture and murder in this region of the country .
Communicated by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Treasury, these sanctions consist of the United States government seizing any property or account held by combatants in the United States and prohibiting anyone in the United States from doing business with them.
Musa Baluku, who took control of the ADF after the arrest of former chief Jamil Mukulu in Tanzania four years ago, is accused of helping the group « through recruitment, logistics, administration, financing, intelligence and coordination ”of the armed organization.
« These sanctions will reveal the financial network of ADF rebels around the world and whether they are involved in money laundering in the region, » Carly Nzanzu Kasivita, governor of the province, told Reuters by phone. North Kivu.
The ADF, originally a Ugandan Muslim rebel movement, have been established in eastern DRC, where they have been established, for almost twenty-five years. They attack civilians there in remote areas, often inaccessible to the security forces.
According to Congolese officials, the ADF have killed more than 100 people in village raids in the last six weeks, hampering efforts to end an Ebola epidemic in the region.
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