Uganda launches an intelligence centre

An intelligence centre has been launched in Uganda by a number of regional countries.

The centre according to authorities is to better coordinate the fight against a rebel group responsible for massacres in neighbouring DR Congo.

The centre which is near the DRC border and has suffered several Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attacks in the past, will be manned by eight security experts from Uganda, DRC, Tanzania and Kenya.

It is estimated to cost $600,000. It is financed by the four core member states.

A string of bloody killings in the DRC has left nearly 700 dead since 2014.

The bloodbath has been blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a shadowy group dominated by hardline Ugandan Muslims whose basic motives and ideology remain unclear. The group however has never claimed any of these attacks .

The ADF was said to have been born out of Uganda’s President’s hostility towards the Muslims. Their aim is to overthrow President Yoweri Museveni.The group absorbed other rebel factions into its ranks and started carrying out attacks in 1995.

Kinshasa had blamed the jihadist group for the killings. But many observers and experts say there has been no proven link with the global jihadist underground.

Young members were recruited from Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya and as far as Somalia. An intelligence agent and civil society source told AFP in December that they were lured by the promise of going to study in Saudi Arabia.