Army Captures 14 ADF Rebels

Jun 24, 2002

The UPDF has captured 11 ADF rebels, one of them a brigade commander in Isale, Butembo, Eastern DRC.

By John B. Thawite in Kasese and Kyomuhendo Muhanga. The UPDF has captured 11 ADF rebels, one of them a brigade commander in Isale, Butembo, Eastern DRC.A nine-month old baby was rescued in the operation last week. The army also seized two submachine guns (SMGs) with two full magazines of live ammunition.The Rwenzori Mountains Alpine Brigade Commander, Lt. Col Dula Mawa Muhindo paraded the mainly sickly - looking captives before the press at the brigade tactical base in Kasese district yesterday.Lt. Col. Mawa said the rebels were captured in a UPDF mop up operation. He said they were captured from the forests as they were scavenging for food in the area following their defeat. Asked what the army would do with the captives, Mawa said, “the law will take its course.”The child’s mother, Amina Baswiire, wife of Vimbe Hussein, the former ADF armouryman was among the captives.Amina Baswiire 30, from Kiryasaka, Masaka, said she had been taken to the bush after some people told her that Tabliqs were going to be killed.Her husband, Vimbe Hussein, was captured in the River Semuliki basin last year but is now a free man in Kampala. One of the other captives is was Enid Kabira from Maliba sub county, Kasese district.The rest said they came from Iganga, Mukono, Bugiri, Kampala, Kasese, Mpigi and the DRC.They identified themselves as Ahmed Kasirye, Zephanus Bwambale, 18, from Kyondo, Kasese, Kasereka Mughosole, 25, from Isale, Baluku Eriabu , 25, of Isale Butembo, Sande Mpanga, 19 of Iganga son of Lyabala, Jamil Kakaire, 25 Iganga and Bitamazire Gode of Bugerere, MukonoThe rebel brigade commander identified himself as Omar Ismael Kasika alias Kofi Onega son of Ismeal Kasika of Lira.Onega said he was commander of Manga Manga brigade, which he said was in total shambles in the DRC.Mawa said the rebel remnants had resorted to robbery and stealing for survival.“The ADF is now a spent force which cannot now pose any threat to our people’s security,” he said.Most of the captives, many of them youth said they had been lured into the rebellion by their relatives and friends.They said Kabanda had mysteriously disappeared, abandoning them.“They said it was safer for us in Zaire (DRC),” she said adding that she found herself in various places including Karuruma and Mangrizipa in the DRC. Kabanda is believed to be holed up in Butembo in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Intelligence source told The New Vision on Saturday that Kabanda is hiding among his cousins, the Nandi (Bakonzo of Congo) with two or three remnants of his group but unable to organise any re-grouping.Butembo is located just on the borderline of Uganda and the DR. Congo. UPDF pulled all its troops out of the Congo last year but maintained a battalion around Ben and Bunia areas and on the slop of Mt. Rwenzori to deal with any eventuality. A battalion consists of about seven hundred troops. Lt. Col. Dura Mawa the commander of the 507 Alpine Brigade which oversees the operations against ADF rebels in Mt Rwenzori and the Beni-Bunia zone in the Congo said the army is still pursuing the remnants there.“We have given them a very good time for surrendering, if they don’t then we shall kill them. No doubt on that,” Col. Mawa said.Kasese RDC Musa Ecweru recently said that seven hundred people most of them captives are still in the rebel ranks.Meanwhile, RPC Marshall Odur, is imprpoving.Ends

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