Policy with Purpose: Protecting Christians and Stabilizing the DRC

Action inspires action, and all it takes is for someone to play their next best hand before everyone lays their cards on the table. Stopping the Allied Designated Forces (ADF) requires definitive, comprehensive action from Washington policymakers and international partners, but what does moving forward look like?

Three indispensable steps must be taken to abolish the ADF and restore stability and security in Central Africa and its Christian communities.

First, Congress must mandate the State Department to formally designate the ADF a Foreign Terrorist Organization. This would unlock critical sanctions and counterterrorism resources, thereby freezing the ADF’s assets and cutting off the funding that fuels their campaign of terror. This action lets the ADF know that the full weight of U.S. counterterrorism resources is now directed at dismantling their networks, with the international community hopefully matching this resolve.

Second, the Executive Branch should appoint a U.S. Special Envoy for Religious Freedom in Central Africa. A distinctly dedicated envoy would coordinate international responses and establish sustained diplomatic engagement, keeping pressure on the ADF and ensuring persecuted Christians are not forgotten. Specific measures to address religious persecution keep the ADF under a microscope, amplifying every crime they commit and stripping away their ability to operate in silence. This move signals that religious freedom in the DRC is central to U.S. foreign policy and will not be dismissed lightly, challenging allies to prioritize the issue as well.

Third, member states must convene an emergency session of the UN Security Council to push for the authorization of a stabilization force. A coordinated regional force, with the necessary mandate and resources to act, can better contain the ADF’s expansion and restore security in affected areas. Deploying an UN-backed, multinational force with resources and legitimacy puts combative pressure on the ADF, which has primarily dealt with a fractured national army, not a task force designated to their abolishment. International unity establishes Christian persecution in the DRC as a global problem that requires a decisive, collaborative effort to stop genocide in real time.

Christians in the DRC are running out of time. Each day of dormancy allows the ADF to increase its dominance over the Congo’s mineral-rich territories, deepen its connection with ISIS, and recruit even more innocent child soldiers.

With the United States’ legislative leadership, the world can come together and prepare to confront the ADF directly. A test of morale and strategy, world leaders must ask themselves: Will we stand by while Christians are senselessly murdered in Central Africa, or will we act with courage and resolve to defeat this genocide?