By Watchdog reporter
Ministers of defense and military strategists from the Great Lakes region are meeting in Kampala to finalise plans to neutralize activities of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which is branded a terrorist group.
Uganda’s minister of defence and veteran affairs Adolf Mwesige said while opening the conference at Imperial Royale Hotel on Friday that ADF is not only posing a threat to Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo but the whole region.
The meeting is a follow up to the heads of state meeting on ADF in Luanda Angola on June 14.which decided to attack the terror group as a region.
“ADF activities are a danger to Uganda and region. We want total annihilation to ADF,” Mwesige said.
The minister reminded the meeting that ADF had butchered 50 people in DRC on August 13 and joint efforts of countries in the Great Lakes Region would help eradicate the terror group whose leader Jamil Mukulu is in Uganda custody.
Uganda military strategist and CMI boss Brig Charles Bakahumura briefed the high level military meeting about the activities of ADF and how to tackle them.
The executive director of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region Ambassador Zachary Muburi-Muita said in his remarks that regional leaders were fully aware of “the menace of terrorism facing the Great Lakes Region carried out by the Al Shabaab from Somalia.”
He said the region should “remain concerned and determined that no other terrorist group should emerge and sustain itself in our region.”
Amb. Muburi-Muita warned that ADF was continuing to recruit from across the region, particularly DRC, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
“We must deny the ADF the ability to engage new recruits, collaborate in order to neutralize their regional networks, including their illegal trading links and sources of finance.
“We must also tackle the media networks that they exploit to spread their propaganda,” Amb. Muburi-Muita.
Members of ICGLR also pledged their support to the ongoing military operations against ADF by the Congolese and UN forces in DRC.
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