From 2019, the ADF had split, with one part remaining loyal to Mukulu, while the other had merged into the Islamic State's Central Africa Province under Baluku.

The ADF chose western Uganda apparently for three reasons: terrain that is ideal for a rural insurgency, proximity to the DRC where the rebels could set up bases and recruit fighters, and the presence of some Ugandan ethnic groups unfriendly to the government that could offer assistance.

[24] During March 2007, the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) engaged incursive ADF groups in multiple firefights, killing at least 46 in Bundibugyo and Mubende districts.

The biggest battle occurred on 27 March, when the UPDF faced an estimated 60 ADF troops, killing 34, including three senior commanders.

The UPDF claimed to have retrieved numerous weapons as well as documents that tied the ADF to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

[citation needed] On 13 April 2007, the UPDF and ADF engaged in an intense battle inside the Semuliki National Park, near the upscale Semliki Lodge tourist destination.

According to the UN Radio Okapi, the ADF together with the NALU fought a pitched battle with the Military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), briefly taking the towns of Mamundioma and Totolito.

[26] On 11 July, the ADF attacked the town of Kamango, triggering the flight of over 60,000 refugees across the border into the Ugandan district of Bundibugyo.

[27] Early in September 2013, regional leaders under the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) asked the recently formed combative United Nations Force Intervention Brigade under the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to attack positions of foreign negative forces operating in the DRC, including the ADF.

[28] Omar Kavota, the vice president and spokesman of the local civil society in North Kivu, condemned the abductions.

The remaining ADF fighters– alongside women and children – retreated into the forest, where their numbers were significantly reduced in the following months as a result of starvation, desertion, and continued FARDC attacks.

The ADF have been blamed for the 2016 Beni massacre and also for an attack in North Kivu on 7 December 2017, which killed 15 UN peacekeepers, all Tanzanians, as well as 5 Congolese soldiers.

[40] Muzaaya had previously served as a commander for ADF's southern division, the "Mwalika camp"; his splinter was believed to be based along the Semliki River in the Virunga National Park.

[41] Muzaaya's group included at least one senior commander, Benjamin Kisokeranio, and was rumoured to enjoy support from Mukulu's son Hassan Nyanzi who is based in South Africa.

[45] In April 2024, a joint operation between the armies of the DRC and Uganda enabled the neutralization of two ADF leaders, nicknamed Doctor “Musa”, and the other Commander “Baghdad”.

[46] The DRC government, citing civil society groups in North Kivu, says that Al-Shabaab fighters from Somalia are collaborating with the ADF.