Uganda, DR Congo launch joint operation against Daesh/ISIS-affiliated militants

KAMPALA, Uganda

Ugandan and Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) forces launched coordinated air and artillery operations against the Daesh/ISIS-affiliated militant group in the border region on Tuesday, officials announced.

Brig. Flavia Byekwaso, a spokesperson for the Uganda People's Defense Forces (UPDF), said Uganda and DR Congo began simultaneous air and artillery strikes against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in North Kivu, a province in eastern DR Congo bordering Uganda.

The joint military strikes came just days after DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi offered his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni permission to strike at the rebels in his country.

On Twitter, DR Congo government spokesman Patrick Muyaya confirmed that the country's military targeted and coordinated strikes with the Ugandan army that began "with airstrikes and artillery fire from Uganda on the positions of ADF terrorists in the DRC."

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni last week warned the ADF hiding in North Kivu to surrender or face military action and confirmed that the government was in talks with a neighboring country to attack the rebels.

The ADF is a Daesh/ISIS-affiliated rebel group that was responsible for last week's twin bomb blasts in Kampala, Uganda's capital, which killed seven people and injured more than 30 others.