Congolese and Ugandan troops have intensified a joint offensive against the Allied Democratic Forces, launching sustained air and artillery strikes on rebel positions east of Bunia in Ituri province since Sunday, 6 July. Military spokespeople said the operation aims to dislodge the ISIS-linked group from border areas where it has staged deadly attacks on civilians and security forces in both countries. The campaign marks the most forceful action by the two armies in several months. Uganda first deployed troops across the border in late-2021 with Kinshasa’s approval after ADF bombings in Kampala; the deployment was later extended amid persistent insecurity in eastern Congo. Neither government has released casualty figures from the latest strikes, and independent confirmation remains limited because of the remoteness of the combat zone. Ituri, along with neighbouring North Kivu, hosts a patchwork of insurgent movements. A separate UN panel report released this month blames ethnic militias CODECO and Zaïre for more than 500 civilian deaths in Ituri since September 2024, underscoring the complexity of restoring stability even as the FARDC-UPDF alliance targets the ADF.