A top Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) commander, Mulalo Segujja, also known as ‘Fezza’, has been killed in eastern Congo, ChimpReports exclusively reported Sunday morning.
According to the local publication, Segujja, a long-serving operations commander of the IS-linked terrorist group, was taken out of action during a joint operation conducted by Ugandan and Congolese forces in North Kivu between February 27-28, 2023.
Colonel FARDC Mak Hazukay, spokesperson for the joint operations of the Congolese and Ugandan armies (FARDC-UPDF) said in a statement on Saturday night that Segujja was killed “during clashes in the Mwalika valley, in the Rwenzori sector (North Kivu).”
Mwalika valley, which is close to the Ugandan border, has been a stronghold of ADF for decades.
Hazukay said, “Mulalo Segujja was the head of the political wing of the ADF/MTM, commander of the Southern Sector/Rwenzori-Mwalika. He was the third highest ranking commander of the terrorist group.”
In November 2018, the Congo Study Group (GEC) published a chart of the ADF movement, showing Seguja as a senior commander in charge of operations.
Segujja, known in Beni and Butembo territories as Fezza, was accused by human rights groups of ordering deadly attacks against the civilian population.
Local authorities said Segujja headed a mobile camp in the Mayangosi forest along the Kasindi-Beni highway, where he always created insecurity along the highway to drive away civilians and FARDC when the ADF needed to transit between its southern camps and those in Eringeti.
In 2013, Segujja reportedly led an attack against a group of FARDC soldiers who were escorting civilians along the Kamango road.
On 20 October 2020, an attack on Kangbayi, Beni’s prison, resulted in a mass escape of over 1,300 of the 1,455 detainees in the prison.
Based on over 30 testimonies from ex-combatants, detainees, escapees, former abductees, Democratic Republic of the Congo security forces, penitentiary staff, civil society sources, researchers, MONUSCO and diplomatic sources, the United Nations Group established that the attack had been planned by ADF and led by commanders Amigo and Mulalo aiming to liberate ADF combatants and collaborators, and recruit at scale.
More commanders killed
Several ADF commanders have been killed since the beginning of Operation Shuja in November 2022.
The spokesperson of the Land Forces, Lt Col Chris Magezi last year disclosed that Somali ADF platoon commander identified as ‘Issa’ had been “put out of action by UPDF Operation Shujaa forces in an ambush south of the Busunga/Nobili border.”
He added: “ADF continues to lose many fighters as a result of Operation Shujaa.”
In 2022, UPDF commandos took out a Tanzanian jihadist alongside other 15 ADF fighters after the islamic movement killed 20 Congolese citizens in Kikura, south of Nobili border point – about 7 kms from Busunga border post of Bundibugyo district.
ADF Commander, Benjamin Kisokorania, was recently captured near the DRC-Burundi border.
The former ADF supreme commander, Jamil Mukulu is held at Luzira prison after being captured by Tanzanian intelligence officials in 2015.
The operations against the ADF in DR Congo, started in November 2022, when the combined UPDF Air Force and artillery shelled Kambi Ya Yua, Tondoli, Belu1, and Belu 2 which are found in North Kivu province in Virunga and Ituri impenetrable forests of Eastern DRC.
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