Reports emerging from the war theatre in Eastern DRCongo indicate that Musa Seka Baluku (pictured center), the leader of the Allied Democratic Forces is allegedly missing.
It is not yet clear whether Mr Baluku may have been hit in the recent aerial and artillery strikes against the rebel bases in DRC forests.
“He is either dead or injured and he is not communicating possibly to avoid being targeted,” an anonymous source told local Ugandan online tabloid.
After Baluku became ADF commander, he appointed himself Sheikh.
To make his leadership different, he publicly aligned ADF with the Islamic state in central African Province, which pays allegiance to the IS of Iraq and Levant.
In December 2019, the government of the United States of America imposed sanctions on Baluku and five other ADF Leaders. He is deputised by Rashid Swaibu Hood Lukwago.
Baluku was born around 1977, and did not have much formal education but attended Islamic studies at a tender age.
He was an Imam at Malakaz mosque in Kampala before meeting Jamil Mukulu who inaugurated him into the ADF that had pitched camp in Kasese district.
Baluku is described by many defectors as being notoriously violent and short-tempered. They accuse him of ordering the abduction of children to serve as child soldiers and say he has presided over mass killings of civilians by firing squad.
His brutal intimidation tactics have also been expressed through beheading and crucifying his misbehaving subjects.
