The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) is an insurgent militant group originally formed in 1996 as a coalition of Ugandan rebels and Islamist militants opposing the government of Uganda. The group emerged from a merger of various armed factions, including former National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU) members and Islamists from the Salafist Tabliq movement. Its primary objective has been to establish Shari'a law in Uganda and challenge the Ugandan state, although its operations have largely been based in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since the late 1990s[2][3][5]. The ADF has a secretive and compartmentalized organizational structure, currently led by Musa Baluku, who consolidated power after the 2015 arrest of the prior leader, Jamil Mukulu. Baluku oversees the group's executive, military, and judicial functions, with the group numbering between 500 and 1,500 fighters as of recent estimates. The group's size has fluctuated over time due to military pressures and counterinsurgency campaigns[1][4][5]. Notably, the ADF aligned itself with the Islamic State (ISIS) around 2018–2019, rebranding as ISIS-DRC or ISIS-Central Africa. This affiliation brought a stricter adherence to ISIS's interpretation of Islamic law and expanded ambitions to extend ISIS’s caliphate into Central Africa. The group has conducted brutal tactics including kidnappings, bombings, ambushes, and massacres targeting civilians, local military forces, and United Nations personnel. From 2014 to 2020, ADF/ISIS-DRC attacks caused approximately 4,000 civilian deaths. They have also employed improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in attacks, especially in Uganda[4][6]. The ADF’s activities continue to destabilize the volatile eastern DRC region, complicating regional security. Despite military offensives by the Congolese and Ugandan armies, the