ADF stages first major attack on Uganda from Zaire
Around 600 fighters crossed from eastern Zaire at dawn and struck Kasese District, killing about 50 people in the first assault and driving an estimated 25,000 residents.
On November 13, 1996, about 600 heavily armed fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) crossed the Mpondwe-Lhubiriha river from Kasindi in eastern Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and attacked communities in Kasese District from around 6am. The rebels hit the Mpondwe Customs Post, Bwera township and nearby Karambi at the same time, overwhelming local defences in one of the most serious breaches of Uganda's western border at the time.
Around 50 people were reportedly killed in the first assault, and an estimated 25,000 residents abandoned the border corridor. Fighters carried off supplies, damaged infrastructure and seized civilians to serve as porters and recruits. They pulled back towards Zaire once Ugandan military reinforcements arrived.
The ADF had been formed in late 1995 by merging anti-government groups, including former members of the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda and radical Tabligh Islamist factions, and was led politically by Jamil Mukulu, a former Catholic turned Tabligh cleric. Within days the Uganda People's Defence Force crossed into Zaire, took the border town of Kasindi and attacked ADF rear camps.
Why it mattersResidents of Kasese District's border towns were forced from their homes, and the Ugandan army moved across the border to strike the rebels' bases.