Uganda Seeking Extradition of Rebel Leader from Tanzania

Uganda is seeking the extradition of the leader of an Islamist armed group responsible for the massacre of civilians in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, a police spokesperson said on Thursday, according to dpa.

Police officials have been sent to facilitate the extradition of Jamil Mukulu from Tanzania, where he was arrested in late April, police spokesperson Fred Enanga said.

The 51-year-old heads the Allied Democratic Forces-National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU), which was founded in Uganda in the mid-1990s. Coming under pressure from the government, it later moved to eastern DRC.

The group is suspected of killing hundreds of people in both countries, including more than 300 people in and near Beni in Congo late last year.

“A team of our officials went to Tanzania early this week with all the necessary extradition papers,” Enanga said.

The spokesperson said the rebel leader was likely to face charges including murder, rape, kidnapping and the recruitment of children as soldiers.

Violence has ravaged eastern DRC since the 1996-2003 DRC wars, which were sparked by more than a million Rwandans flooding into the region after the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Dozens of armed groups remain active in the east of the country, including ADF-NALU.

Many of the armed groups terrorise local people in order to have free rein in trafficking with the region’s rich natural resources, according to human rights activists.