HIGHLIGHTS OF NIF ROLE IN THE GREATER HORN OF AFRICA

Uganda
On December 5, 2001 , President George W. Bush designated two Sudanese-backed armed insurgent groups in Uganda , the ADF and the LRA, terrorist organizations. As noted above, the ADF maintains an Islamist agenda, and the LRA is a millenarian militia with roots in Christianity and traditional African religious beliefs. Uganda sent troops to the Congo in 1998 to destroy camps of the Allied Democratic Front (ADF) and cut off its supply lines from Sudan . Its support appears to have ceased after Khartoum and Kampala signed a peace agreement in December 1999. As a result, the ADF has been fairly inactive, although there have been occasional reports, one as recent as July 2004, of ADF actions in western Uganda . The Ugandan government says that these reports are false; nonetheless, it has cautioned its citizens to be vigilant. Kampala has implemented what appears to be a successful reconciliation plan with exiled elements of the Tabliq sect, whose disaffected members formed the core of the ADF.
Cut off from Sudanese backing, the ADF made an apparently failed effort in 2001 to court Iraq as a new patron. In a letter to the head of the Iraqi intelligence agency, a senior ADF operative outlined his group's efforts to set up an "international mujahidin team." Its mission, he said, "will be to smuggle arms on a global scale to holy warriors fighting against US, British and Israeli influences in Africa , the Middle East , Asia and the Far East ." The letter, dated April 2001, was signed: "Your Brother, Bekkah Abdul Nassir, Chief of Diplomacy ADF Forces." Nassir offered to "vet, recruit and send youth to train for the Jihad' at a center in Baghdad , which he described as "...headquarters for international Holy Warrior network....We should not allow the enemy to focus on Afghanistan and Iraq , but we should attack their international criminal forces inside every base," the letter said.
The non-Muslim LRA has continued to wreck havoc in northern Uganda , although its intensity has diminished due to an aggressive amnesty program and anti-insurgency operations. In addition, a security agreement with the Sudanese government has given Uganda greater advantage in the field by allowing it to operate within a red zone inside Sudan . Nonetheless, the Ugandan government claims elements within the Sudanese military continue to support the LRA, and evidence from diverse sources suggest the LRA works hand in glove with the local Sudanese military in the Equatoria region against SPLA-allied militia, the Equatoria Defence Forces (EDF).
According to a statement issued by the EDF, the LRA raided villages at Gangala near the Government garrison position of Jebel Mille. The raids took place from June 25 to 27, 2004 . The EDF said the LRA, supported by the Sudan government army, also attacked Jebel Guttni and Kor Englizi, overrunning and burning villages and #####ng property.
In July 2004, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni appointed his Military Assistant and UPDF's Chief Political Commissar, Brigadier Kale Kayihura, as Uganda 's special military liaison officer to the town of Juba in southern Sudan to coordinate with the Sudanese military an offensive against the Ugandan rebel forces. Referring to the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, the army spokesman, Major Shaban Bantariza, said,
We need close cooperation with the Arabs [ Khartoum government]. Like now, Kony is in Nisitu. What is he doing there? ... They [ Sudan ] are giving him food, medicine. He sleeps on Sudan government mattresses. His greatest problem now is feeding well. There should be smooth exchange of information and understanding with each other at close range without ambassadors and ministers flying to Khartoum .

Arabic Forum