The Joint Task Team in Rwenzori West, while working with our Counterparts in the Eastern DRC, arrested a mother of two, with 3 other girls aged 11, 13 and 15, who were being smuggled out of the country as ADF recruits. The 22-year-old mother and her two sons aged 3 and 5, plus the 3 other girls, had travelled all the way from Buziika village in Njeru sub county, Jinja district. They reached the borderline on the 22.02.2023, and crossed into the Eastern DRC from Banamayi in Kabuyini cell, where they were intercepted by the Congolese security, and handed over to our Joint Task Team on the 25.02.2023. The ADF recruits who were being led by an ADF operative, whose identity was established and included on our wanted list.
As you are all aware, the ADF are finding it hard to smuggle recruits out of the country and are recruiting children and women to carry out a variety of roles within or for the groups. The children are used in hostilities such as frontline fighting, executions, terror related activities. Sometimes they are used for supportive roles as messengers, smugglers or spies among others.
We continue to caution parents and guardians against handing over their children to actors of violence like the ADF. The 4 suspected recruits and the two young boys were handed over to the Mountain Division of the UPDF for further management.
SCP Enanga Fred
Police Spokesperson
27th February 2023
