DAKAR, Oct 27 (Reuters) – An Islamic State-aligned insurgency in eastern Congo generates most of its revenue from gold production and smuggling, allowing it to finance its own operations, a report said on Tuesday.
The Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, which has killed thousands in attacks on civilians and security forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo over the last decade, generates between $1 million-$1.6 million a year from gold mining sites in one area of North Kivu province alone.
The gold is trafficked through trading hubs in eastern Congo and onwards to refiners and export networks in neighbouring Uganda, according to a report by The Sentry, a US-based investigative organisation that tracks violent conflict and illicit financial networks.
Uganda has deployed thousands of troops to Congo to help local forces fight the ADF, but the group has proved itself to be resilient, embedding itself deeply in local economic networks.
Revenue from gold has allowed the group to rely less on financial support from Islamic State since late 2024, when US sanctions targeted key facilitators in its networks, according to The Sentry.
Fighters also generate money from cocoa production, extortion and kidnapping, it said.
“The ADF has adapted to military pressure and sanctions by finding new ways to fund its operations, particularly through gold and other resource trafficking,” said Justyna Gudzowska, executive director of The Sentry, calling for governments to disrupt the ADF’s sources of funding.
“That means going after the financiers, gold traders, and facilitators,” she said.
Spokespersons for Uganda’s army, Uganda’s government and Congo’s government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
ADF RESILIENT TO YEARS OF UGANDAN OPERATIONS IN CONGO
Established as an Islamist group in Uganda in the 1990s, the ADF had shifted most of its operations to eastern Congo by 2000. It then pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2019 and has received support from IS central.
Since doing so, the ADF has combined a local insurgency rooted in the Uganda-Congo borderlands with transnational jihadist ambitions.
The group has carried out a number of bomb attacks in Uganda and has attracted a number of fighters from across the region.
Joint Congolese-Ugandan operations launched in late 2021 helped secure major cities and trade routes but the ADF has been fragmented, not defeated, and moved deeper into remote mining areas of North Kivu, Ituri and Tshopo provinces, the report said.
A representative of a Congolese mining cooperative said the ADF moved into the area in mid-2024, establishing bases near mining sites.
The representative, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told Reuters the group abducted miners and prospectors to extract, transport and sell gold on its behalf. Some residents cooperated in return for payment, he said, creating a system sustained by a mix of coercion and economic incentives.
The ADF continues to operate while most international attention remains largely focused on the Rwanda-backed AFC/M23 rebellion, now known as FRN, which seized large swathes of eastern Congo last year.
(Reporting by Clement Bonnerot and Fiston Mahamba; Editing by David Lewis and Susan Fenton)
