Congo war: Military court jails two ADF collaborators for 20 years

The two will face a sentence that includes first-class hard labour, after the duo pleading guilty to their involvement with the ADF.

The convicts are Kyanza Mabimbi and Pelekini Kambale, both of them are residents of Beni territory.

ADF rebels are wreaking havoc in the eastern part of DRC Pulse

Major Kalambayi Mufungayi presided over the military tribunal, which tried the two convicts who were arrested in the Ruwenzori sector of Beni last year and charged with aiding and abetting the ADF.

While reading the sentence, Mufungayi said that the two convicts contributed to the rising levels of insecurity in the province. Mafungayi also ordered the convicts pay court costs worth 300,000 Congolese Francs equivalent to 537,027 Ugandan shillings.

Other ADF collaborators have been sentenced to first-class hard labour in the past.

In March this year, the same court sentenced Kavugho Mayani and Mweki Kambale to 15 years of first-class hard labour after the two pleaded guilty to the same charges.

So far, the Beni garrison military court has sentenced 28 ADF fighters and their collaborators in the last four months.

The convicts include a Kenyan, Rwandan, and two Ugandans.

These hearings and sentences are going on against the backdrop ADF rebels wreaking havoc in the eastern part of DRC.

The latest ADF attacks occurred on April 26th, 2022, in Mighende-Hululu, on the Beni-Kasindi highway in Beni territory and Kosakosa village near the Mungamba commercial centre in the Walese Vonkutu chiefdom of Irumu territory, North Kivu province.

In Mighende-Hululu, on the Beni-Kasindi highway, the rebels killed four people including two women and also set two vehicles on fire.

The rebels also killed two civilians and abducted 10 others in Kosakosa village.