OVERVIEW

ISIS-DRC flag

ISIS–Democratic Republic of Congo (ISIS-DRC), also called ISIS–Central Africa and locally known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), is one of the deadliest militant groups in eastern Congo. The group began as an antigovernment insurgency in Uganda and was publicly recognized by ISIS leaders in Syria as an ISIS branch in 2019. ISIS-DRC follows ISIS’s strict interpretation of Islamic law and aims to extend ISIS’s self-proclaimed caliphate into central Africa.

OPERATING AREAS
Primarily in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, DRC; also conducts attacks in Uganda

MEMBERS
From 500 to 1,500

TACTICS AND TARGETS
ISIS-DRC has a history of indiscriminate killings, ambushes, and kidnappings against Congolese citizens, regional military forces, and UN personnel in the DRC and Uganda. Its attacks killed approximately 4,000 civilians from 2014 to 2020. In 2021, the branch began using IEDs to conduct attacks in Uganda.

FOREIGN TERRORIST GROUP DESIGNATION
The US State Department designated ISIS-DRC as a foreign terrorist organization in March 2021 and designated the branch’s leader, Seka Musa Baluku, a specially designated global terrorist at the same time. In 2014, the ADF—ISIS-DRC’s predecessor group—was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department and the UN under the UN Security Council’s DRC sanctions regime for violence and atrocities.

KEY LEADERS

NOTABLE ATTACKS