Musa Baluku, the head of the ADF militia, which predominantly operates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is wanted by the US, and there is a reward of up to $5 million offered for information that results in his detention.
One of the deadliest armed organisations operating in the turbulent, violent east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
The militia, which the Islamic State group claims to be its central African offshoot, has been charged with the murder of tens of thousands of civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and launching bomb assaults in Uganda.
The US embassy in Kinshasa said on Thursday that it would pay up to $5 million in exchange for information that would result in the capture of ADF leader Seka Musa Baluku.
The embassy claimed that the militia “kills, maims, rapes and performs other sexual atrocities and engages in abduction of civilians, especially children,” under his command.
According to the US State Department, Baluku is a citizen of Uganda and is probably in his late 40s.
The ADF was officially connected to the Islamic State group in 2021, and the US listed it on its list of foreign terrorist groups.
In eastern Congo, the militia has kept up its murderous attacks, especially in the nearby provinces of North Kivu and Ituri.
For instance, on January 15, suspected ADF agents blew up a bomb in a church in North Kivu, killing at least 14 people and injured 63 more.
In an effort to quell the unrest, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi declared North Kivu and Ituri to be under “state of siege” in 2021 and installed military and law enforcement officials in their places.
That same year, the DRC and Uganda jointly launched an offensive to expel the ADF from their bases in the Congo, but the measures have not yet been successful in doing so.