Beni, DR Congo, Dec 18 (AFP/APP):Bags on their backs and guns slung across their chests, soldiers trudge into the forest in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo towards alleged hideouts of the ADF rebel group.
Just instants earlier, rocket launchers fired a salvo in the direction of purported camps of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) near the border with Uganda.
It is the third week of a joint Congolese-Ugandan military operation against the group, who are accused of massacres in eastern DR Congo and bomb blasts in Uganda.
“We will fight to the ultimate sacrifice,” one young Congolese soldier tells journalists, on an army-led trip to the frontline in the world-famous Virunga National Park.
All around him, the forest is a haven for rare species, including elephants, hippopotamuses, lions and okapis.
Mountain gorillas live in the south of the park. But in its north, ADF rebels are believed to be hiding between the trees.
The ADF was historically a Ugandan rebel coalition largely comprised of Muslims opposed to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
But the group established itself in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 1995, later becoming the deadliest of scores of outlawed forces in the troubled region.
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