Uganda's ADF rebel leader extradited from Tanzania

Ugandan police on Friday announced the extradition of Jamil Mukulu, the leader of Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) from Tanzania to the country to face charges of terrorism, murder, kidnapping and recruitment of children.

Assan Kasingye, the police director of Interpol and International Relations, told Xinhua by telephone that Mukulu, whose rebel group is currently causing havoc in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was airlifted to Uganda.

"Yes, I can confirm the extradition of Mukulu from Tanzania. We

finally have him. We shall brief you [media] more tomorrow on the next steps to be taken in his prosecution and trial," said Kasingye.

Mukulu's extradition ends the three months long protracted legal battle between the accused and the Ugandan government in Tanzania, where he was resisting his transfer and trial. The ADF leader who has been on Interpol's most wanted list since February 2011 follows an order by a Tanzanian Magistrate Court to have him tried in Uganda where he faces several terrorism and murder charges. Interpol issued in a red notice for Mukulu in connection with the 1996 Mpondwe attack in the western Ugandan district of Kasese and the June 1998 Kichwamba Technical Institute massacre in the western district of Kabarole, in which about 80 students were killed.

He also faces charges of human rights abuses, kidnapping and recruitment of children in both Uganda and DRC.

Mukulu, 51, a catholic turned Muslim convert whose rebel group carried out several attacks in the capital Kampala in the 1990's was arrested in Tanzania in April this year.

The ADF, a partly Islamist grouping of Ugandan origin formed in the 1990s, have continued to commit atrocities and human rights abuses that include killings of civilians, rape, abductions and looting in eastern DRC despite the Congolese military hunting them.

In late 2014, the ADF was blamed for a spate of killing sprees in Beni Territory of eastern DRC's North Kivu province that claimed the lives of some 250 men women and children.