UK to probe UN findings on African Islamist group

By Katrina Manson

KINSHASA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Britain said on Tuesday it would investigate U.N.-mandated findings that a Muslim cleric in London was funding an African Islamic group in Congo which has carried out training in terrorist tactics.

Jamil Mukulu is described in a U.N. Group of Experts report as London-based leader of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist Ugandan-led rebel group based in Congo since the 1990s whose aim is to install an Islamist government in Uganda.

The ADF is named on the United States Terrorist Exclusion List, which lists terrorist groups identified by Washington.

"We take all allegations about support for rebel groups emanating from the U.K. seriously and will investigate the claims regarding ADF funding in the Group of Experts report," a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said by email.

She did not answer questions about Mukulu's whereabouts. The five-member Group of Experts' findings were released on Monday and accepted by the U.N. Security Council.

Operations launched against the ADF in June this year by Congo's national army led to a humanitarian crisis and displaced more than 90,000 people in Congo's troubled east.

The Group said the army had suffered relatively high casualties but the ADF remained "a cohesive force".

The report said Mukulu funded the group from London and visited members after fighting restarted this year.

The experts said the ADF had established training bases for urban warfare and terrorist tactics since 2006 and its troops were trained by Moroccans this year and Pakistanis last year, noting unconfirmed helicopter sighting in ADF territory.

The report said all major decisions required the authorisation of Mukulu, adding that he visited Congo's east this year "to boost morale and take charge of ADF forces", also sending cash.

"In 2010, two senior ADF former combatants informed the Group that ADF received money from Mukulu in London by means of Western Union transfers to Beni and Butembo," the report said of two towns in the north of Congo's eastern North Kivu province.

The experts said they saw copies of documents provided by the Congolese army recording more than 100 Western Union money transfers "allegedly destined for ADF or its intermediaries" but did not report the value of these payments.

Uganda has previously said the group was responsible for bombings in its capital Kampala in the late 1990s. The U.S. embassy was not immediately available for comment. (Editing by Mark John)