{"id":1469,"date":"2021-04-04T07:35:23","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T07:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=1469"},"modified":"2022-01-03T07:38:23","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T07:38:23","slug":"the-us-has-placed-sanctions-on-isis-drc-but-does-the-group-even-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/1469\/the-us-has-placed-sanctions-on-isis-drc-but-does-the-group-even-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"The US has placed sanctions on ISIS-DRC, but does the group even exist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Robert Flummerfelt*<\/strong>\u00a0&\u00a0<\/a>Judith Verweijen<\/a>*<\/strong><\/p>\n

On 10 March, the US Department of State\u00a0designated<\/a>\u00a0a rebel group operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a foreign terrorist organisation. Referring to it as the \u201cIslamic State of Iraq and Syria \u2013 Democratic Republic of the Congo (ISIS-DRC)\u201d, it placed the group under strict sanctions. It suggested that the rebel group \u2013 also known as Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) \u2013 has become part of the so-called Islamic State\u2019s Central Africa Province and warrants heightened action.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes as US military advisers and the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC have shown a renewed interest in supporting Congolese forces conducting operations against the ADF. The rebel group has operated in the DRC since the 1990s, long before ISIS gained international prominence. Apparently US officials believe that its modus operandi and objectives have shifted now that it is part of global jihadist movement of ISIS.<\/p>\n

Many analysts, however,\u00a0disagree<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Objectives and strategies<\/strong><\/p>\n

One argument for seeing ADF as part of ISIS is that its objectives and strategies have changed. According to a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0by George Washington University\u2019s Program on Extremism and the Bridgeway Foundation, the ADF\u2019s current leader Seka Baluku has reoriented the group\u2019s raison d\u2019\u00eatre from overthrowing the Ugandan government to the \u201cestablishment of an Islamic State inside DRC as part of a global caliphate\u201d.<\/p>\n

In making this case, the report cites an ADF video in which \u201cchildren can be heard repeating in Arabic the Islamic State\u2019s infamous motto: \u2018Remaining and expanding!\u2019\u201d It explains that ISIS\u2019s \u201cprimary export\u201d to its affiliates are its creed (aqeeda)\u00a0and method (manhaj), which includes \u201cterritorial control and implementing authority\u201d. This is often achieved through capturing territory, holding cities and declaring a state.<\/p>\n

It is questionable, however, as to whether the ADF has truly evolved in this way. The group has never previously shown any interest in capturing territory to govern civilian populations, only a small minority of whom are Muslim. It has mostly stayed secluded in the bush. Recent interviews with detained combatants, internal UN intelligence reports or accounts of kidnapped civilians indicate that there are no signs that this has changed. Rather, these sources saythat ADF primarily wants to be left alone. Its main message to local populations is that it will stop conducting mass killings when the army halts operations against it.<\/p>\n

This suggests that the rebel group has not adopted the ISIS objective of \u201cremaining and expanding\u201d, but simply of remaining. In fact, in the video cited by the report, the children can only be heard chanting the first half of the phrase: \u201cbaqiyah\u201d\u00a0(which is the same as the Swahili\u00a0bakia).<\/p>\n

It is true that, within its camps, the ADF has developed an extensive\u00a0governance system<\/a>\u00a0with schools, prisons and health care structures. All the camps\u2019 inhabitants must abide by strict regulations based on Islamic law. But these purely internal governance structures long predate any links with ISIS.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recruitment and financing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another reason to suggest that ADF is part of ISIS is that it has started to recruit fighters from across the region and has received funding through foreign ISIS associates. However, both these claims are dubious.<\/p>\n

Firstly, ADF has contained fighters from different East African countries for a long time. A UN Group of Experts report in 2012\u00a0documents<\/a>\u00a0its recruitment networks operating across Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania and notes that the group is \u201cincreasingly targeting recruits from East Africa\u201d. The ADF\u2019s former leader Jamil Mukulu was in Tanzania when he was\u00a0arrested<\/a>\u00a0in 2015.<\/p>\n

Secondly, the evidence for alleged financial links with ISIS appears weak. There were\u00a0allegations<\/a>\u00a0in 2018 that the group received funding through an alleged ISIS money handler in Kenya, but recent UN investigations do not mention these financial links. Much of the evidence for them relies on interviews conducted by \u201cUgandan authorities\u201d and must be treated with caution, especially as\u00a0numerous<\/a>\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0indicate that ADF combatants and suspected collaborators were tortured during interrogation by the Ugandan intelligence services.<\/p>\n

In any case, external financing is not crucial for ADF\u2019s survival. According to recent interviews with detained ADF combatants, the group relies primarily on supplies obtained via looting and \u201cbusiness<\/a>\u201d operations in North Kivu.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Modes of violence<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the George Washington University report, more evidence of ADF\u2019s affiliation with ISIS can be seen in the increase of violence against civilians. It associates a spike in violence in early-2018 with then ISIS-leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi\u2019s first mention of the Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP). It adds that \u201cthese numbers were surpassed in 2019 when the ADF was finally recognized publicly by the Islamic State as part of ISCAP.\u201d<\/p>\n

But correlation is not causation. Moreover, there is a much more plausible explanation for these patterns. Both those\u00a0spikes in violence<\/a>\u00a0came immediately after the Congolese army and the UN mission MONUSCO conducted\u00a0offensive operations<\/a>\u00a0against the ADF. Furthermore, the period preceding the 2018 violence was notable for both a lack of offensive operations and few rebel attacks against civilians. The most consistent ADF motive for violence continues to be reprisals to discourage offensive operations.<\/p>\n

Some have also cited the ADF\u2019s use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as a sign of its ISIS links. But, in the words of UN reports and officials, these weapons remain \u201cvery rudimentary\u201d and are used for \u201ctactical, defensive reasons against the army, not as a terrorist tool\u201d. This stands in sharp contrast with the level of sophistication and function of IEDs used by ISIS.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Propaganda links<\/strong><\/p>\n

In recent years, ISIS\u2019s central media units have started to claim attacks in the DRC. Meanwhile, the ADF has begun making reference to ISIS in its\u00a0growing propaganda output<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This appears to be evidence of close communications, yet a 2020\u00a0UN report<\/a>\u00a0found that 35% of the attacks in the DRC claimed by ISIS do not correspond to actual incidents. Over 50% were inaccurate, misstating locations, dates or casualty figures.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, ADF\u2019s propaganda remains diverse and at times makes no reference to ISIS at all. Rather than relaying a coherent message about being an ISIS affiliate, the group appears to tailor its output to its various networks. Most of its videos are primarily in Swahili and Luganda, suggesting they are targeting the same East African networks in which ADF has been embedded for decades.<\/p>\n

Recent interviews with detained ADF combatants also indicate that knowledge of the group\u2019s connections to ISIS is uneven. Some even stated that they were unaware of the existence of ISIS altogether. This suggests that any links with the Islamic State are part of externally oriented rebranding rather than a consistently applied internal transformation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The dangers of inaccurate analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n

The US labelling of ADF as ISIS-DRC suggests a much more fundamental transformation of the group than the current evidence allows for. This points to the risks of reading too much into propaganda, thereby inflating the significance of the Islamic State.<\/p>\n

The ISIS-DRC narrative also leads to\u00a0misdiagnosing<\/a>\u00a0the drivers of violence. This is deeply worrying if it contributes to an increase in offensive operations against ADF given that the rebel group has typically attacked civilians\u00a0in response to\u00a0such assaults. Moreover, the Congolese army itself has\u00a0been implicated<\/a>\u00a0in past mass killings that were\u00a0attributed<\/a>\u00a0to ADF.<\/p>\n

Finally, making the struggle against ADF part of the global war on terror\u00a0forecloses<\/a>\u00a0non-violent ways of dealing with the group. The ADF is no doubt a dangerous armed group that needs to be addressed, but the wrong narrative carries with it all the wrong solutions.<\/p>\n

\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640<\/p>\n

*Investigative journalist and human rights researcher based in DR Congo.<\/p>\n

*Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Sheffield.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Robert Flummerfelt*\u00a0&\u00a0Judith Verweijen* On 10 March, the US Department of State\u00a0designated\u00a0a rebel group operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a foreign terrorist organisation. Referring to it as the \u201cIslamic State of Iraq and Syria \u2013 Democratic Republic of the Congo (ISIS-DRC)\u201d, it placed the group under strict sanctions. It suggested that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-africa","category-ana-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}