Published on: 7 February 2020
By Britta Milovansev – DOHI News
Ngulongo Year Batsemire, a 60-yr-old pastor and father of 10 children, was murdered by Islamist militants after refusing to give names of other pastors and refusing to deny Christ and convert to Islam.
On January 29, according to Barnabus Fund, Pastor Ngulongo, the Archdeacon of Eringeti, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was walking to his fields with his wife when they were surrounded by members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist group, in the west of Beni territory
Photo by Dario Didon on Unsplash
The militants demanded Pastor Ngulongo tell them where they could find other pastors. They then attempted to force him to convert to Islam. When the father of 10 children refused to renounce Jesus Christ, the jihadists martyred him. His wife’s life was spared. She recalls that the militants had uttered a local known phrase used when they are looking to kill Christians but spare Muslims.
Reuters reported a series of raids on the same day (Jan 29) where ADF militants murdered at least 30 people in four villages in the Beni region. Most of the attacks were between Beni town and Eringeti, the most used trunk road in the region.
On October 10, 2019, President Félix Tshisekedi announced the imminent start of the “last” offensive against the ADF that would “definitively exterminate them.”
The offensive was launched on October 30, 2019, bringing with it a surge of violence in the area. Kivu Security Tracker (KST) has logged the deaths of 77 civilians in abuses carried out by ADF since November 2019.
North Kivu deputies, who had called for this operation are “deeply worried” by how the situation is evolving.
“We’re trying to establish 24/7 patrols, as well as roadblocks to filter movements of people,” explained one of the officials. “But it’s very difficult to monitor individuals who move at night with cold weapons. It even seems that the ADF are using networks already established in towns.”
This surge in violence has caused fear in Christians who are fleeing the region, leaving some churches without pastors to hold Sunday services.
BACKGROUND
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) was formed by David Steven (Jamil Mukulu), born in the village of Ntoke, Uganda.
Steven, a former Christian, converted to Islam and adopted the Muslim name, Jamil Mukulu. He was radicalized when he was introduced to fundamentalist Islamic ideologies while studying in Saudi Arabia. In the early 1990s in Khartoum, Sudan, he came in personal contact with Osama bin Laden.
Mukulu began formulating the idea of establishing an Islamic state in Uganda. He joined the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU). In 1995 when NALU’s leader, Amon Bazira, was killed Mukulu began unifying various militant groups into the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and appointed himself supreme commander. Mukulu gained notoriety for ordering the abduction of hundreds of children to train as child soldiers.
Between 1996 and 2001, Mukulu’s forces carried out numerous bombings, massacres, and other terror attacks in the Congo, killing an estimated 1,000 civilians and displacing over 150,000 others.
ADF-NALU is the only Islamic militant entity in DRCongo and one of the longest surviving terror groups.
In 2015, Mukulu was arrested in Tanzania and is currently awaiting trial in the International Criminal Court for charges of murder and crimes against humanity.
After Mukulu’s arrest “Sheikh” Musa Baluku became the leader of the ADF.
