KAMPALA: Uganda has charged 45 Rwandans with terrorism following their arrest at the border with Tanzania earlier this month, a police spokesman said Friday.
“We arrested 43 Rwandan suspects at the border with Tanzania on Dec. 11. On further investigations two other suspects were arrested,” police spokesman Emilian Kayima told AFP.
All have been charged “with carrying forged documents, false identities and the serious charge of terrorism as their intentions were pointing to that,” he said without providing more details.
The suspects are being held at Nalufenya prison, east of the capital Kampala, often used to jail those accused of terrorism or involvement with rebel groups.
The suspects had been living in Uganda and claim they were traveling to Tanzania as evangelists.
But Rwanda says they are members of the Rwanda National Congress, an opposition party in exile led by former allies of President Paul Kagame, that Kigali deems a terrorist organization.
Neighbours Rwanda and Uganda have a fractious relationship, with their leaders competing for regional influence.
Rwanda has long blamed Uganda for harboring dissidents.
Two days after the 45 arrests, Rwanda’s Foreign Ministry in a letter pressured Uganda to charge the suspects.
The ministry accused Kampala of facilitating the recruitment of rebels and their travel to training camps, allegedly in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The same letter denounced “multiple unjustified arrests” of Kigali loyalists in recent months, including members of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front.
Ugandan authorities say the loyalists were abducting and killing dissident Rwandan refugees, a claim backed by human rights groups but dismissed by Kigali.
Uganda charges 45 Rwandans with ‘terrorism’
Uganda charges 45 Rwandans with ‘terrorism’
Uganda army denies seizing opposition leader as vote result looms
- Election day was marred by significant technical problems after biometric machines
- There were also reports of violence against the opposition in other parts of the country
KAMPALA: Uganda’s army denied claims on Saturday that opposition leader Bobi Wine had been abducted from his home, as counting continued in an election marred by reports of at least 10 deaths amid an Internet blackout.
President Yoweri Museveni, 81, looked set to be declared winner and extend his 40-year rule later on Saturday, with a commanding lead against Wine, a former singer turned politician.
Wine said Friday that he was under house arrest, and his party later wrote on X that he had been “forcibly taken” by an army helicopter from his compound.
The army denied that claim.
“The rumors of his so-called arrest are baseless and unfounded,” army spokesman Chris Magezi told AFP.
“They are designed to incite his supporters into acts of violence,” he added.
AFP journalists said the situation was calm outside Wine’s residence early Saturday, but they were unable to contact members of the party due to continued communications interruptions.
A nearby stall-owner, 29-year-old Prince Jerard, said he heard a drone and helicopter at the home the previous night, with a heavy security presence.
“Many people have left (the area),” he said. “We have a lot of fear.”
With more than 80 percent of votes counted on Friday, Museveni was leading on 73.7 percent to Wine’s 22.7, the Electoral Commission said.
Final results were due around 1300 GMT on Saturday.
Wine, 43, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has emerged as the main challenger to Museveni in recent years, styling himself the “ghetto president” after the slum areas where he grew up in the capital, Kampala.
He has accused the government of “massive ballot stuffing” and attacking several of his party officials under cover of the Internet blackout, which was imposed ahead of Thursday’s polls and remained in place on Saturday.
His claims could not be independently verified, but the United Nations rights office said last week that the elections were taking place in an environment marked by “widespread repression and intimidation” against the opposition.
- Reports of violence -
Analysts have long viewed the election as a formality.
Museveni, a former guerrilla fighter who seized power in 1986, has total control over the state and security apparatus, and has ruthlessly crushed any challenger during his rule.
Election day was marred by significant technical problems after biometric machines — used to confirm voters’ identities — malfunctioned and ballot papers were undelivered for several hours in many areas.
There were reports of violence against the opposition in other parts of the country.
Muwanga Kivumbi, member of parliament for Wine’s party in the Butambala area of central Uganda, told AFP’s Nairobi office by phone that security forces had killed 10 of his campaign agents after storming his home.
