NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Pretty Peter flicked through frantic messages from friends at home in Uganda.
The transgender woman is relatively safe in neighboring Kenya. Her friends feel threatened by the latest anti-gay legislation in Uganda prescribing the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”
South Sudan struggles to clear mines after decades of war as people start returning home
May 31, 2023 GMTMAGWI COUNTY, South Sudan (AP) — For the first time since fleeing South Sudan's civil war eight years ago, Jacob Wani returned home excited to rebuild his life.
But when the 45-year-old farmer tried to access his land in Eastern Equatoria state's Magwi County, he was banned, told that it had been labeled hazardous and contaminated with mines.
Uganda’s president signs into law anti-gay legislation with death penalty in some cases
May 31, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda's president has signed into law anti-gay legislation supported by many in this East African country but widely condemned by rights activists and others abroad.
The version of the bill signed by President Yoweri Museveni doesn't criminalize those who identify as LGBTQ+, a key concern for some rights campaigners who condemned an earlier draft of the legislation as an egregious attack on human rights.
Renowned actor Forest Whitaker sets up his Peace and Development Initiative in poor Paris suburb
May 17, 2023 GMTAUBERVILLIERS, France (AP) — Renowned actor Forest Whitaker, who has portrayed a dictator, a Mafia hitman and a butler, has taken on what for some may be his most inspirational role.
Whitaker officially inaugurated on Wednesday his Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative in Seine-Saint-Denis, meant to bring business, communication and conflict resolution skills to the young people of France’s poorest region.
Media: Ugandan minister shot and killed by bodyguard
May 2, 2023 GMTA bodyguard shot and killed a government minister in Uganda early Tuesday in an apparent private dispute, according to the army and local media.
The attacker, who has not been publicly identified, then turned the gun on himself, according to state broadcaster UBC and others.
Ugandan president refuses to sign LGBTQ bill, seeks changes
April 20, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has refused to sign into law a controversial new bill against homosexuality that prescribes the death penalty in some cases, requesting that it should be amended.
South African opposition protests Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ bill
April 4, 2023 GMTPRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — More than 200 protesters in South Africa have demonstrated at the Uganda High Commission against the anti-gay bill recently passed by Ugandan lawmakers.
The demonstration on Tuesday was led by South Africa's leftist Economic Freedom Fighters opposition party, which urged Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni not to sign the bill into law.
Google, others say Uganda anti-LGBTQ bill bad for business
March 29, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A business group including corporate giants such as Google says it opposes Uganda's anti-LGBTQ legislation, calling it “a concern for global businesses and investors operating or planning to invest” in the East African country.
Uganda LGBTQ leader says gay bill threatens homelessness
March 23, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A prominent leader of Uganda's LGBTQ community said Thursday he was worried about becoming "homeless,” describing anguished calls by others like him who are concerned for their safety after the passing of a harsh new anti-gay bill.
‘Deeply troubling’: UN rights chief on Uganda anti-gay bill
March 22, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The United Nations rights chief on Wednesday urged Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to block an anti-LGBTQ bill that prescribes harsh penalties for some homosexual offenses, including death and life imprisonment.
Uganda’s legislature passes harsh new anti-LGBTQ bill
March 21, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan lawmakers passed a bill prescribing jail terms of up to 10 years for offenses related to same-sex relations, responding to popular sentiment but piling more pressure on the East African country’s LGBTQ community.
Ugandan leader’s son unnerves with tweets of ambitions
March 15, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — On Twitter, the Ugandan president’s son has mused about invading neighboring Kenya, praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and offered cattle for the Italian prime minister's hand in marriage.
Recycling lake litter, Ugandan makes innovative tourist boat
March 5, 2023 GMTLUZIRA, Uganda (AP) — Flowering plants rise as if by magic from Lake Victoria onto a wooden boat, giving it a leafy ambiance that enchants many visitors.
The initial attraction becomes more compelling when tourists to Uganda learn that the greenery emerges from an innovative recycling project which uses thousands of dirt-encrusted plastic bottles to anchor the boat.
At least 22 people, including children, abducted in Congo
March 1, 2023 GMTKINSHASA, Congo (AP) — At least 22 people, including children, were abducted from three villages in northern Congo, local authorities said.
Seven armed men dressed in white military uniforms, attacked towns in Ango territory in Bas-Uele province Tuesday, area administrator Mazale Lekabusia Marcellintold The Associated Press by phone.
Ugandan lawmaker introduces new anti-LGBTQ legislation
February 28, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A Ugandan lawmaker on Tuesday introduced draft legislation that he said seeks to prohibit homosexuality in the East African country, voicing widespread anti-gay sentiment that has peaked in recent days.
Court dismisses case against TotalEnergies’ Africa projects
February 28, 2023 GMTPARIS (AP) — A French court on Tuesday dismissed a case brought against TotalEnergies by activists contending that the energy company’s major oil projects in east Africa violated the human rights of the region’s inhabitants and posed environmental risks.
Ugandan, South African leaders urge greater trade in Africa
February 28, 2023 GMTJOHANNESBURG (AP) — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has called for stronger trade relations among African countries and lamented the high cost of buying products and services outside the continent.
Man with torture wounds on his chest stirs anger in Uganda
February 16, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Rights activists and others are urging Ugandan authorities to restrain security agents accused of torture after a man who had been missing resurfaced with wounds on his chest.
Uganda blocks operations of UN rights office in the country
February 8, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan authorities say they will not renew the mandate of the United Nations human rights office in the East African country, effectively blocking the group's operations at a time of heightened concerns over rights abuses.
Ugandan activist’s family awarded $10.5M for Utah park death
January 31, 2023 GMTSALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The United States will pay family members of a Ugandan human rights activist killed in an accident at Arches National Park more than $10 million in damages, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Uganda begins oil drilling, hopes for production by 2025
January 24, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Oil drilling has begun in a Chinese-operated field in Uganda and the East African country expects to start production by 2025, an official said Tuesday.
The spokesman for Uganda's ministry of energy and mineral development, Solomon Muyita, said the beginning of drilling at the Kingfisher oil field in the Kikuube district was “a significant stride” toward achieving commercial oil production.
Islamic State claims church bombing in east Congo; 14 dead
January 16, 2023 GMTKASINDI, Congo (AP) — Islamic extremists claimed responsibility for a bombing of a church in eastern Congo as authorities said Monday that the toll from Sunday's attack had risen to at least 14 dead.
Congo’s army says church bomb kills 10, extremists suspected
January 15, 2023 GMTGOMA, Congo (AP) — A suspected extremist attack at a church in eastern Congo killed at least 10 people and wounded more than three dozen, according to the country's army.
A group linked to Islamic extremists was suspected of being responsible for a bomb that went off in the Pentecostal church in the North Kivu province town of Kasindi, military spokesperson Anthony Mwalushayi told The Associated Press by phone.
WHO, officials say Uganda’s latest Ebola outbreak is over
January 11, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda's latest outbreak of the Ebola virus is over, the government and the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
Health Minister Ruth Aceng told journalists that no new cases had been registered in the past 42 days.
Bus crash near Uganda-Kenya border kills at least 20
January 8, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A bus crash near the border of Uganda and Kenya killed at least 20 people and injured 49 others, police said Sunday.
The bus was coming from the Ugandan town of Mbale and it crashed on Saturday night after crossing into Kenya on the way to the capital, Nairobi, said Rodgers Taitika, the Elgon regional police spokesman in Uganda.
Ugandan soldier fatally shoots 3 colleagues in Somalia
January 3, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A Ugandan soldier has shot and killed three colleagues serving in Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping force, Uganda’s military said Tuesday.
New Year’s organizer charged with murder in Uganda stampede
January 2, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The death toll in a stampede at a shopping mall during New Year’s celebrations in Uganda’s capital has risen to 10, the country’s vice president said Monday, while police charged the event’s organizer with murder.
Stampede during New Year’s event in Uganda kills at least 9
January 1, 2023 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A stampede during New Year's celebrations at a popular mall in Uganda's capital, Kampala, left at least nine people dead, including children, police said Sunday.
The stampede happened at the Freedom City Mall in Namasuba suburb as revelers rushed to watch fireworks.
Uganda gets Ebola vaccine doses for trial on Sudan strain
December 22, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda’s government says it has received more than 5,000 doses of Ebola vaccines for a clinical trial to assess their protection against the Sudan strain of the virus that caused an outbreak with over 50 deaths.
As sports betting grows in Africa, many see a real scourge
December 16, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The Ugandan health official was so sure Argentina would win its World Cup soccer match against Saudi Arabia that he gambled $1,800 advanced to him by authorities as allowances for 243 people who had participated in a polio immunization campaign.
International court upholds Ugandan rebel’s convictions
December 15, 2022 GMTTHE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — International Criminal Court appeals judges Thursday rejected the appeal by a former commander in the brutal Ugandan rebel group Lord's Resistance Army of his conviction on dozens of charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity and upheld his 25-year sentence.
Trial begins over death of Ugandan woman killed in Utah park
December 5, 2022 GMTSALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Ludovic Michaud was driving around the scenic red rock landscapes of Utah's Arches National Park on a windy spring day in 2020 when something unthinkable happened: A metal gate whipped around, sliced through the passenger door of his car and decapitated his new 25-year-old wife, Esther Nakajjigo.
Talks begin on disarmament of rebel groups in eastern Congo
November 28, 2022 GMTNAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The third round of Congo peace talks facilitated by the East Africa regional bloc opened in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, on Monday with a plan to discuss reforms that will facilitate disarmament of rebel groups.
Kidnappings, looting cited in Ethiopia’s Tigray after truce
November 27, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Allies of Ethiopia’s federal military are looting property and carrying out mass detentions in Tigray, according to eyewitnesses and aid workers.
The accounts raise fresh concern about alleged atrocities more than three weeks after the warring parties signed a truce that diplomats and others hoped would bring an end to suffering in the embattled region that’s home to more than 5 million people.
3 killed and dozens injured in South Sudan road ambush
November 22, 2022 GMTJUBA, South Sudan (AP) — At least three travelers were killed and 22 others injured in an ambush on buses traveling on a major highway in South Sudan.
Gunmen dressed in military fatigues and armed with AK-47s ambushed two buses and a smaller vehicle along the Juba-Nimule highway on Monday.
Kenzo, first Ugandan nominated for Grammy, had humble start
November 22, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Eddy Kenzo doesn’t know precisely when he was born, a quirk of personal history that goes to the heart of how the Ugandan singer sees himself: a humble man who's sometimes anxious about what happens next.
Ugandan activist living in Vermont gets deportation reprieve
November 18, 2022 GMTST. ALBANS, Vt. (AP) — Authorities in Vermont say a Ugandan activist who fled his home country after he says he was repeatedly tortured for his human rights work and would fear for his life if he was deported can stay another year.
Africa CDC chief urges more COVID-19 testing as cases rise
November 17, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The head of Africa's top public health institute is urging authorities across the continent to step up COVID-19 testing amid a concerning rise in new cases in some countries.
WHO: 1st Ebola vaccines to arrive in Uganda next week
November 16, 2022 GMTGENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that he expects the first doses of Ebola vaccine targeting the strain behind an outbreak in Uganda to arrive in the country next week.
Uganda’s Ebola responders fret as some people fight measures
November 2, 2022 GMTKASSANDA, Uganda (AP) — The recent explosion of Ebola virus cases in a Ugandan rural community began when defiant residents exhumed a body at night, undoing the work of a safe burial team in order to give the deceased man a proper Islamic funeral.
African health official: Ebola in Uganda is under control
October 27, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda's Ebola outbreak is under control, a top public health official in Africa said Thursday, noting that local health authorities are doing well to trace most contacts.
“The situation is not getting out of control,” said Dr.
Ebola infects 6 schoolkids in Uganda as contagion fear grows
October 26, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Six schoolchildren in Uganda’s capital have tested positive for Ebola, the health minister said Wednesday, marking a serious escalation of the outbreak declared just over a month ago.
Uganda: Dorm fire at school for the blind kills 11 girls
October 25, 2022 GMTMUKONO, Uganda (AP) — A fire at a boarding school for blind students killed 11 children in a rural community just outside Uganda's capital, Kampala, the school's administrator and police said Tuesday.
Uganda reports worrisome increase in Ebola cases in capital
October 24, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan officials have reported 11 more cases of Ebola in the capital since Friday, a worrisome increase in infections just over a month after an outbreak was declared in a remote part of the East African country.
WHO: Ugandan Ebola outbreak ‘rapidly evolving’ after 1 month
October 20, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda's Ebola outbreak is “rapidly evolving” a month after the disease was reported in the East African country, a top World Health Organization official said Thursday, describing a difficult situation for health workers.
UN genocide official: Hate speech is fueling Ethiopia’s war
October 19, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A U.N. official is urging tech companies to do everything possible to stop the onslaught of hate speech fueling the war in Ethiopia's north, where a violent war pits federal troops and their allies against Tigray's rebellious leaders.
Uganda to deploy Ebola vaccine in 2 weeks, says WHO official
October 19, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Experimental Ebola vaccines will be deployed in Uganda in about "two weeks,” a World Health Organization official said Wednesday, as the East African country carried out tough preventive measures that include a lockdown in the Ebola-hit areas.
Digital activists challenge Uganda’s harsh new internet law
October 17, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan activists launched a legal challenge Monday to controversial new legislation criminalizing some internet activity in the East African country.
Their petition to the constitutional court argues that the description of computer-related crimes in the bill enacted with President Yoweri Museveni's signature last week violates the right to freedom of expression and criminalizes some digital work, including investigative journalism.
Uganda locks down 2 districts in bid to stem spread of Ebola
October 15, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan authorities on Saturday imposed a travel lockdown on two Ebola-hit districts as part of efforts to stop the spread of the contagious disease.
The measures announced by President Yoweri Museveni mean residents of the central Ugandan districts of Mubende and Kassanda can't travel into or out of those areas by private or public means.
New law in Uganda imposes restrictions on use of internet
October 13, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has signed into law legislation criminalizing some internet activity despite concerns the law could be used to silence legitimate criticism.
‘Africa on its own’: Little help in epidemics, says official
October 12, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Africa must plan to respond effectively to disease outbreaks without international help, a top public health official said Wednesday, warning that the continent of 1.3 billion people is “on its own” during pandemics.
US to begin screening travelers coming from Uganda for Ebola
October 6, 2022 GMTWASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will begin screening travelers coming from Uganda for Ebola as an additional precaution aimed at trying to prevent an outbreak in the African country from spreading, the Biden administration said Thursday.
CDC, WHO, Uganda to host regional meeting as Ebola spreads
October 6, 2022 GMTNAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Uganda next week will host a ministerial meeting on the outbreak of the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus which has no proven vaccine and has caused alarm in the East Africa region.
Uganda’s president fires military son after offensive tweets
October 4, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni fired his son as commander of the nation's infantry forces Tuesday after the son tweeted an unprovoked threat to capture the capital of neighboring Kenya, drawing widespread concern in East Africa.
Ugandan opposition figure Bobi Wine objects to oil pipeline
October 4, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A planned pipeline to export oil from Uganda is likely to entrench the long rule of President Yoweri Museveni, opposition figure Bobi Wine said Tuesday, voicing his opposition to a project that's increasingly controversial over environmental concerns.
Testing trouble adds to disorder in Uganda’s Ebola response
October 1, 2022 GMTMUBENDE, Uganda (AP) — The nurse wanted the toddler with a high fever transferred at once from a private clinic in Uganda to a public hospital even though the child tested positive for malaria amid an Ebola outbreak that has rattled health workers.
Ugandan military helicopter crashes in eastern Congo
September 28, 2022 GMTNAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Ugandan army spokesman confirmed Wednesday that the crash of one of the country’s military helicopters in eastern Congo.
The spokesman, Felix Kulayigye, told The Associated Press “we are still waiting” for more details about the crash earlier this week.
Uganda confirms 7 Ebola cases, races to halt outbreak
September 22, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda confirmed seven Ebola infections Thursday as authorities try to track down 43 contacts of known Ebola patients two days after authorities in the East African country announced an outbreak of the contagious disease.
Eritrea accused of starting offensive on Ethiopia’s Tigray
September 20, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Eritrea on Tuesday launched a full-scale offensive along the country's border with northern Ethiopia in what appeared to be an escalation of last month's renewal of fighting against Tigray forces.
Uganda confirms at least 1 case of Ebola hemorrhagic fever
September 20, 2022 GMTKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan health authorities on Tuesday reported that a man who died a day earlier had tested positive for the virus that causes Ebola.
They said it's still unknown how the 24-year-old man became infected with the Sudan strain of Ebola, for which there is no approved vaccine.