[7] ADF merged with the remnants of another rebel group, the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU), during the years following the fall of Idi Amin.

ADF-NALU's initial goal was to overthrow Ugandan president's Yoweri Museveni government, replacing it with an Islamic fundamentalist state.

Funded by the illegal mining and logging industries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ADF created 15 well organised camps in the Rwenzori Mountains, located in the DRC-Uganda border areas.

Other alleged sponsors of the faction include Sudanese Islamist politician Hassan al-Turabi and former DRC president Mobutu Sese Seko.

The insurgency continued on a smaller scale until 2013, which marked a resurgence of ADF activity, with the group launching a recruitment campaign along with numerous attacks.

[7][25][26] A report of The Congo Research Group at New York University, released in September 2017, indicted the Congolese Army commanders of orchestrating the massacres in Beni from 2014 to 2016.

It stated that the first massacres were orchestrated in 2013 by former leaders of the rebel group Popular Congolese Army (APC), which fought in the Congo War of 1998–2003 to create a new rebellion and undermine confidence in the central government of DRC.

[4] 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 FARD, briefly taking the towns of Mamundioma and Totolito.

[39] On 23 October 2013, ADF guerrillas abducted 26 people from the village of Upira, North Kivu, later transferring them to the rebel strongholds of Makembi and Chuchubo.

[43] On 17 January 2014, the Congolese army drove ADF militants soldiers out of the city of Beni, with the aid of UN's "Intervention Brigade" peace corps.

The killings took place in the village of Ntombi, located about 40 km northeast of Beni, an area massacres and recurrent attacks attributed to Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group opposed to the Ugandan government and is considered a terrorist organisation.

[1] 8 December – Hundreds of ADF insurgents launch a coordinated attack on a UN base in North Kivu province, killing at least 15 UN peacekeepers and five Congolese soldiers in a protracted, hours-long gun battle before finally withdrawing.

[13] 15 January – Three Democratic Republic of Congo soldiers were killed while repelling an attack in the eastern Beni region by ADF Ugandan extremist rebels.

[65] 3 March – Six people were shot dead and another was stabbed to death in a raid by ADF rebels in the village of Eringeti in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province.

[70] 3 November – Allied Democratic Forces Rebels killed at least 7 people and abducted 15 others including 10 children in raids and attacks in the DRC's North Kivu province.

[73] 11 December – ADF insurgents bypass Congolese army units and launch a second nighttime attack on Oicha, killing nine civilians and looting several homes.

[75] 27 December – Protesters in Beni attack a medical holding center for patients infected with the Ebola virus, burning three tents and looting supplies.

[79] 24 January – Three people are killed and two others were wounded in an ambush attack by presumed members of the ADF, in the province of North Kivu, on a highway that led to the city of Beni, four vehicles were left damaged by bullets.

5 April – 35-year-old American tourist Kimberly Sue Endicott and her native guide are kidnapped by a group of armed gunmen in Queen Elizabeth National Park, near the Uganda-DRC border.

[84] 29 May – Suspected ADF fighters launch a massive assault on Congolese army barracks and UN Peacekeeping forces in the village of Ngite, near Mavivi, DRC.

After the militants briefly capture the barracks, a joint UN-Congolese army counterattack inflicts heavy losses on the ADF, which withdraws following an intense firefight.

[87] 7 June – Officials from Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, and the DRC meet in Kinshasa to discuss a joint response to the ADF insurgency in North Kivu.

[90] 27 August – A major ADF attack on Boga in the DRC's Ituri Province results in the abduction of 100–200 civilians and the looting of livestock, medicine, and food.

[91][92] 5 September – Tanzanian soldiers detain a truck full of cows destined for the DRC, alleging the shipment was arranged by ADF supporters to provide food for insurgents in the Congo.

[96] 13 November – Ukrainian Mil Mi-24 helicopters operated by MONUSCO conduct airstrikes on an ADF insurgent group attacking an army base near the Semuliki River.

[99] 30 November – Congolese soldiers kill a high-ranking ADF commander, Mouhamed Islam Mukubwa, during an assault in the Mapobu forest in northeastern North Kivu.

Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres again called for global ceasefire after the killings, he also urged DRC "to take concrete steps to address the drivers of conflict in the east of the country".

[137][138][139] 15 January – Three soldiers and 13 civilians were killed when suspected ADF militants attacked the village of Ndalya, 60 miles south of the city of Bunia in Ituri province.

[144] 8 December – suspected ADF fighters killed 16 people in the rural communes of Mangina and nearby Masiriko in North Kivu province of DRC.