Former ADF abductees, rebels making most of second chance

The motorcycle they are joining could be the first to roll at the top of the Mbuya Hill. The place is so sacred that even military officers are not allowed to be chauffeured to that point.

Mr Kwizera and his colleagues freely access the premises and display their skills as senior military officers watch on and encourage them.

“The pin we brought was big. We need a small one that fits to enable the engine to ignite,” Mr Kwizera tells the military officers after failing to successfully ignite the engine despite kick starting it several times.

Mr Kwizera’s instructors are happy that they were able to assemble the engine in the shortest time possible.

The trainees’ wish is to apply the newly acquired skills once they return to the community and reunite with their families.

Just three years ago, a sight of Mr Kwizera and his colleagues a few metres from the Uganda border could lead to a gun battle with the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces.

Some were Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) combatants or their victims not many months ago.
But Mr Kwizera and 29 others aren’t thinking about armed struggles anymore.

This group of 30 is evidence of the achievements that the UPDF and Congolese army have obtained in their joint operation dubbed Operation Shujaa against ADF rebels in Uganda and Eastern DRC started in December 2019.

Col Deo Akiiki, the deputy director of Defence public information in Uganda, said Mr Kwizera’s group is the third cohort of rehabilitated former ADF combatants and victims of abductions.

“On May 1, 2023, we had the first cohort where rehabilitated ADF captives and fighters were brought…and the number was 48. In December 2023, 75 were also rehabilitated and reunited with their families. And today, we have a total number of 30 rehabilitated and thereafter, they are going to be reunited with their families with the help of Bridgeway Foundation,” Col Akiiki said.

Mr Noah Tumwebaze, a Bridgeway Foundation Coordinator, said ADF uses several ways to recruit, some by deception, others by abduction and business opportunities, but the end goal is to turn them into fighters.

Mr Eritie Kukule, a Congolese national, who is around 19 years old, was found by ADF rebels in the garden with his friend and abducted in Eastern DRC. He was rescued by UPDF after staying in captivity for more than a year.

Mr Kwizera still remembers a bright day in early 2017 as he was taking a troll with his three colleagues in a village in Kasese District that day when he ended up in the ADF captivity.

Along the way, Mr Kwizera said they were intercepted by armed men dressed in civilian clothes.
Mr Kwizera said he thought they were probably Ugandans security personnel on their routine patrols.
“We stopped to talk to them. Only for them to detain us before ordering us to go along with them,” he said.

The rebels stripped them of whatever they had and led them to the bush.
At gunpoint, they walked for miles and miles with barely a good rest and meals until they were deep in the forests of the DRC.

After weeks of walking, they were taken in as prisoners in the ADF rebel camps.
“In the camps, the rebels forcefully taught us their Islamic ideology. You had to learn how to pray and recite the Koran. Later, you were taught military tactics,” he said.

The intense training cease after the captive proves that he or she has acquired the taught skills.

Mr Kwizera recalls being taken outside of the camp alongside new recruits where senior ADF combatants killed people they referred to as infidels.  Their actions instilled fear among the young people. Some recruits were forced to carry out similar gruesome acts to prove their allegiance to the ADF.

In February 2022, Mr Kwizera thought of how to desert the ADF rebel outfit.
“I cultivated their trust. I planned to escape. So, one morning after prayers, I cleaned my gun and put enough bullets. I got a panga and water. When I walked about the camp, I didn’t return,” he said.
He later handed himself to the government security forces that analysed his story.

Col Akiiki said when ADF combatants or captives are captured by the joint forces, they are handed over to Bridgeway Foundation that rehabilitates them and also give them skills before they are handed back to the government.

In Uganda’s case, Col Akiiki said, some of the former ADF combatants are given amnesty under the Amnesty Act to be able to reunite with their families.

Mr Moses Draku, the spokesman of Amnesty Commission, said some of the rehabilitated persons benefited from amnesty and received certificates that exonerated them of any offences that they might have committed.

“I would require you that you go and implement what you have learnt from these skills, which have been given to you. When you go to the community, things aren’t easy... Don’t say, I have come from rebellion, I have nothing to follow on. You are one of the lucky ones that have acquired these skills,” Mr Draku said.

Mr Draku said since the Amnesty Act was enacted, 28,000 Ugandans have benefitted from it. Around 13,000 amnesty beneficiaries are from the Lord’s Resistance Army followed by 6,000 members of West Nile Bank Front while nearly 2,500 ADF members have embraced amnesty.

Like Mr Kwizera, Kakule is eager to return to the DRC to start a mechanic workshop after getting the training.