President Museveni has said the UPDF and DRC army, FADRC have in a joint operation code named Shuja have put out of action over 500 ADF fighters inside the Congo forests.
“Since the launch of the Joint FARDC-UPDF operation, code named “Operation Shujaa” in November, 2021, 508 ADF combatants have been put out of action,” Museveni said.
The president who was giving his state of the nation address said that during the same period, 50 ADF fighters have been captured alive, 90 abductees rescued and 20 defectors received.
“A total of 109 SMGs, five PKMs, three RPGs, have been recovered.”
PKM stands for PK machine gun which is a belt-fed general-purpose machine gun, chambered for the 7.62×54mmR rimmed cartridge.
Designed in the Soviet Union and currently in production in Russia, the original PK machine gun was introduced in 1961 and the improved PKM variant was introduced in 1969.
On the other side, RPG is a shoulder-fired missile weapon that launches rockets equipped with an explosive warhead.
The president also noted that in March this year, the UPDF put out of acting 29 ADF fighters who had attacked Ntoroko district and recovered from them nine SMG rifles.
In November 2021, Uganda and DRC launched joint operations targeting ADF bases inside the thick Congo forests after terror attacks in Kampala left over 10 dead and scores injured during twin blasts targeting the Central Police Station and Parliamentary Avenue.
Several ADF camps have also been destroyed during this period and several other areas liberated from the group’s control in DRC.
Also a number of top ADF commanders are said to have been killed during the operation but the whereabouts of the top most commander, Musa Baluku are not known since the operation started two years ago.
Whereas initial reports at the start of the operation indicated he had been killed in one of the air and artillery strikes by the Ugandan army, no further evidence has been provided to prove this.
However, Baluku seems to have gone underground and no information regarding his activities in DRC has surfaced by officials from the Ugandan army say the hunt for him is still on.
