Wanted rebel leader Jamil Mukulu was detained over illegal possession of a firearm when police realized he looked like the man who had evaded capture for 20 years. Photo: Interpol
Illegal possession of a firearm is what brought down wanted rebel leader Jamil Mukulu when he was captured in April.
Upon realizing man they detained on the weapons charge looked like the wanted rebel leader, police transferred Mukulu to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s police spokeswoman Advera Senso Busimba is quoted as saying in Ugandan media.
Mukulu, the leader of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), was nabbed in Kagera region which borders Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda — where he is wanted by Interpol for for various contraventions of the Geneva Conventions.
He is also on the UN’s sanction list for the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Busimba says Mukulu had a home in the north-western region.
Mukulu, who has been on the run for 20 years and is known to use nine aliases, was reportedly in possession of both a Tanzanian and Ugandan passport.
Ugandan media reports that upon a visit from that country’s Interpol officers, the suspect confessed to being Jamil Mukulu.
Two weeks after his arrest, two Tanzanian peacekeepers were killed and over a dozen more injured in what is believed to have been a retaliatory attack by suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in DRC.
