Islamic State affiliate expanding reach in DR Congo

A Ugandan armed group that killed dozens of school children last week is expanding its operations in Democratic Republic of Congo with funding from
Islamic State, a United Nations group of experts said on Tuesday.
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) started as an uprising in Uganda but has been based in neighbouring Congo since the late 1990s. It pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2019.
The ADF killed at least 37 people in an attack on a school in western Uganda near the Congolese border on Friday night.
Despite a joint operation against it by the Congolese and Ugandan armies, the ADF has sent scouts and fighters to plan attacks hundreds of kilometres beyond its normal area of operations in eastern Congo, the experts said in a report to the U.N. Security Council.
“In North Kivu, Operation Shuja had an impact on the sanctioned armed group. Nonetheless, ADF pursued expansion beyond North Kivu and Ituri provinces and continued to conduct deadly attacks on civilians,” the report said.