US imposes sanctions on six top ADF commanders

“The following individuals are being designated for being the leaders of the ADF of the DR Congo or for materially assisting the ADF through recruitment, logistics, administration, financing, intelligence, and operations coordination,” the statement said.

The ADF rebels are under the command of Musa Baluku, who took over its leadership after his predecessor Jamil Mukulu, was arrested in Tanzania in 2014 and extradited to Uganda for trial.
The US government says Baluku and five other commanders are wanted for killing, raping and abduction of people in the Great Lakes Region.

“The ADF was designated in 2014 as an armed group active in DR Congo responsible for targeting children in situations of armed conflict, including through killing, rape, abduction, and forced displacement impacting the Great Lakes region,” the US government added.
The ADF rebel commanders are among 68 individuals and companies that will face sanctions under the US Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, targeting corrupt individuals and perpetrators of human rights abuse.

The former Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, was put under the same sanctions by the US government this year.
The statement says the rebel commanders have also been involved in financing the ADF outfit that has become a menace in eastern DR Congo.

Those Sanctioned

UN report
According to the 2014 UN report on the ADF, Baluku assumed overall command around mid-April 2014 and he is married to Jamil Mukulu’s stepdaughter, only identified as Stella.
Another commander facing the sanctions is Muhamad Lumisa, 57, who, according to the same report is a sheikh and medical doctor.
Lumisa joined ADF in 1999. Before Mukulu’s arrest, he was in charge of welfare and military stores in Madina camp.

But he later became the commander of Camp Bango after Jamil Mukulu’s arrest in 2015. He is said to have kept changing positions and according to a report released in November 2018 by the Congo Research Group, a non-profit research project that tracks the activities of rebel groups in DR Congo, Lumisa had become the head of training and medical serveries by the end of last year.
Amigo Kibirige is another rebel commander on the list. According to the Ugandan intelligence reports in 2017, he was the Commander of Irunguin Camp in Mwalika.

The same UN report of 2014 says, Elias Segujja, alia Fezza, who is also on the list was as Chief of combat operations.
Others are Muhammad Kayiira, the Chief Judge and Amisi Kasadha, alias Muzamir Kirbaki, who was the deputy ADF army commander and a military instructor in 2014.

The same report released by the Congo Research Group in November last year indicates that Kasadha had become the head of training and medical serveries while Kayiira had been given another role to head administration and finance.
The US government also sanctioned Mahmud al-Warfalli, the commander of the al-Saiqa Brigade in Libya. “Since 2016, al-Warfalli has carried out or ordered the killings of 43 unarmed detainees in eight separate incidents,” the statement said.

Five members of the South Sudan government accused of killing members of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition were also put on the list for human rights abuses.
Others are from Cambodia, Burma, Pakistan and Slovakia.