In accordance with paragraph 2 (g) of the Guidelines for the conduct of its work, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1533 (2004) concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo makes accessible a narrative summary of reasons for the listing for individuals, groups, undertakings and entities included in its sanctions list.
Listed pursuant to paragraphs 7 (b), 7 (d), 7 (e) and 7 (h) of resolution 2293 (2016), as reaffirmed by paragraph 2 of resolution 2688 (2023): MOHAMED ALI NKALUBO has and continues to engage in acts that constitute serious human rights violations or abuses in the DRC and undermine the peace and security of the DRC. MOHAMED ALI NKALUBO has a major role in the ADF armed group, a designated entity. As an ADF senior leader, he shares responsibility for crimes committed by ADF (killings, abduction, lootings, recruitment of child soldiers, sexual abuse, illegal trade mining, taxation, and arms proliferation) and is responsible for justifying the repeated and deliberate attacks committed by the group against civilians in Ituri and North Kivu. He was also identified as the person responsible for fabrication of arms for ADF and responsible for ADF rapprochement with the ISIL/Islamic State as early as 2017.
MOHAMED ALI NKALUBO has consistently and repeatedly abused his power as a military leader of the sanctioned entity ADF, thereby undermining the peace and security of the DRC and committing human rights abuses in the DRC. He planned or participated in planning several attacks on the DRC territory. On 15 January 2023, an ADF explosive device detonated in the Pentecostal Church in Kasindi, 56km southeast of the city of Beni (North Kivu province). The explosion, which occurred during a church service, killed at least 13 civilians and injured over 76 others. On 2 and 3 April 2023, ADF carried out a series of attacks resulting in at least 31 civilians killed near the border of the Mambasa and Irumu territories (Ituri province). On 7 April 2023, ADF elements ambushed and killed at least 24 civilians, including 14 men and 10 women, in the village of Musamdaba near Enebuela, 25km northwest of the city of Beni. On 11 April 2023, a MONUSCO patrol, responding to a reported attack at Mabelenga (Ituri province), was ambushed by ADF elements. As coordinator of ADF external operations, MOHAMED ALI NKALUBO coordinates ADF logistics and facilitation networks. Since 2021, NKALUBO has transferred funding to ADF operatives in support of operations across the Great Lakes region. As the primary builder of explosive devices in the group, he trained the suicide bomber that conducted the 7 April 2022 Katindo attack. NKALUBO also directed the 23 October 2021 attack of a restaurant in Kampala, Uganda, targeting a location reportedly frequented by Ugandan officials. He was also directly involved in an attempted attack in Rwanda in August and September 2021. He is a close associate of the Tanzanian national AHMED MAHMOUD HASSAN alias ABU WAKAS or ABWAKASI, one of the main sponsors of the attacks on Ugandan soil: Mpondwe, on 16 June 2023, and Queen Elizabeth Park, on 17 October 2023.
His name appears in the 2023 final report of the UN Group of Experts on the DRC (see, inter alia, Annex 2: Links between ADF and Mai-Mai Malaika).