Signs of resistance to artemisinin in tenth of children with severe malaria similar to situation in Asia, say researchers
Researchers have found “troubling” evidence for the first time that a lifesaving malaria drug is becoming less effective in young African children with serious infections.
A study of children being treated in hospital for malaria in Uganda, presented at a major conference on Thursday, found signs of resistance to artemisinin in one patient in 10.
Continue reading...The international criminal court awarded a record €52.4m to survivors of Dominic Ongwen’s crimes but member states have failed to contribute
Not a single country has contributed towards reparations for the victims and survivors of the Ugandan warlord Dominic Ongwen, despite the international criminal court awarding €52.4m (£44m) in February, according to the ICC Trust Fund for Victims (TFV).
The ICC reparations order – the largest in the court’s history – was issued after a 2021 ruling in which the court found Ongwen, a former commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army militia group, guilty of various war crimes committed between 2002 and 2005, including murder, torture, sexual enslavement, the conscription of children into hostilities, and brutal attacks on four camps for internally displaced people in northern Uganda.
Continue reading...Critics say plan mooted by coalition government led by Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom party is ‘totally unfeasible’
The Dutch coalition government, headed by Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom party (PVV), is considering sending Africans whose asylum requests are rejected to Uganda, in plans that opposition politicians have said are “totally unfeasible”.
During a visit this week to the East African country, the Dutch minister for trade and development, Reinette Klever, said the cabinet was exploring the ideaand that Uganda was “not averse” to it, the Dutch public broadcaster Nos reported on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Mourners in Uganda pay respects to Olympic athlete whose death prompted renewed calls for more protection for women in sport
Thousands of mourners in Uganda paid their respects on Saturday to Rebecca Cheptegei, the Olympic athlete who died last week in Kenya after her partner set her on fire. The military funeral took place in a remote town near the Kenyan border.
Military officers played a prominent role in the funeral because Cheptegei held the rank of sergeant in Uganda’s army, said military spokesperson Brig Felix Kulayigye, adding that she deserved a “gun salute that befits her rank”.
Continue reading...The family of a Ugandan athlete who died in Kenya after allegedly being set on fire by her former boyfriend has called for justice and legal action against the culprit.
“I have a lot of grief because I’ve lost my daughter. I seek your help so that this person who has killed my daughter can be prosecuted,” Joseph Cheptegei, the father of Rebecca Cheptegei, told reporters at the hospital where she died.
Continue reading...Bobi Wine’s party, the National Unity Platform, said police ‘made an attempt on his life’
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine has been shot in the leg in a confrontation with police just outside the capital, Kampala, his opposition group said.
Photos posted online on Tuesday showed Wine surrounded by followers who yelled that he had been shot in the leg before some supported him into a waiting car.
Continue reading...Youthful, growing cities expected to create wealth and opportunities but stretch public and utility services
Six African cities will have more than 10 million people by 2035, with the continent’s booming young population making it the world’s fastest urbanising region, according to a report.
Angola’s capital, Luanda, and Tanzania’s commercial hub, Dar es Salaam, will join the metropolises of Cairo, Kinshasa, Lagos and Greater Johannesburg with populations of more than 10 million, the Economist Intelligence Unit said in a report on African cities.
Continue reading...Head of Africa CDC Jean Kaseya urges international community to support rollout of testing and vaccinations
African health officials have appealed to the international community not to impose travel bans on countries dealing with an outbreak of mpox, but instead to support the continent in rolling out testing and vaccinations.
There have been about 1,400 new cases and 24 deaths linked to a new variant of mpox over the past week, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Continue reading...Africa has the youngest population of any continent, and recent protests in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda suggest growing youth disillusionment. Will they be able to turn discontent into action?
The youth-led protests that have broken out in several African countries over the past weeks should, say observers, serve as warnings that a disillusioned generation blame the elders of the ruling political classes for missed economic opportunities.
From mid-June to early August, young people in Kenya hit the streets protesting against what they described as runaway corruption and high taxes levied by President William Ruto’s regime. In Uganda, what was shaping up as protests against the government in July were nipped in the bud by police after President Yoweri Museveni’s warning that those thinking of such protests “were playing with fire”. Nigeria saw short-lived protests against the poor handling of the economy by President Bola Tinubu’s government.
Continue reading...‘Global gag rule’ and funding cuts will be ‘on different scale’ if Republicans win again, family-planning providers say
Providers of women’s healthcare around the world are preparing for potentially disastrous consequences should Donald Trump win the US presidential election in November.
Policies pursued during Trump’s last presidency caused “devastating” harm in a number of countries, said Beth Schlachter, a senior director at MSI Reproductive Choices in the US. It meant “clinics shuttered, health teams closed, women dying … but a second Trump term will be on a different scale”.
Continue reading...Court to sentence Thomas Kwoyelo for 44 offences committed during militia’s 20-year rebellion and reign of terror
A former commander in the feared Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been convicted of crimes against humanity after the first such war crimes trial in Uganda.
Thomas Kwoyelo, who faced 78 counts related to crimes committed during the LRA’s bloody two-decade rebellion, had been waiting for years behind bars for a verdict in the landmark case.
Continue reading...Police in Kampala stop and detain anti-corruption demonstrators after earlier round-up of opposition MPs
Scores of demonstrators have been arrested in the Uganda capital, Kampala, for taking part in a banned rally that has drawn inspiration from the youth-led anti-government protests that have roiled neighbouring Kenya for a month now.
Police stopped and detained people from among small groups of protesters who were marching and shouting anti-corruption slogans in different parts of the city.
Continue reading...Stephen Kwikiriza is one of 11 campaigners against EACOP targeted by authorities in past two weeks, rights group says
A man campaigning against the controversial $5bn (£4bn) east African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) is recovering in hospital after an alleged beating by the Ugandan armed forces in the latest incident in what has been called an “alarming crackdown” on the country’s environmentalists.
Stephen Kwikiriza, who works for Uganda’s Environment Governance Institute (EGI), a non-profit organisation, was abducted in Kampala on 4 June, according to his employer. He was beaten, questioned and then abandoned hundreds of miles from the capital on Sunday evening.
Continue reading...Activists call move ‘absurd’, as Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of President Museveni, is accused of torture and abusing critics
Senior British government officials have congratulated the newly appointed head of the Ugandan army, a man accused of torture, in a move that has been called “absurd” and “disappointing”.
Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s new chief of defence forces and son of President Yoweri Museveni, received a congratulatory letter from Britain’s most senior military officer, Adm Sir Tony Radakin, at a meeting with the British high commissioner, Kate Airey, and the British defence attache.
Continue reading...With the world’s humanitarian system in crisis, many NGOs now recognise that local charities can deliver much more at far less cost
Before civil war engulfed her Ethiopian home region of Tigray in 2020, Tsega Girma was a prosperous trader who sold stationery and other goods. But when hungry children displaced by the conflict started appearing in the streets, she sold everything and used the proceeds to buy them food.
After that money dried up, Tsega appealed to Tigray’s diaspora for donations. At the height of the war, her Emahoy Tsega Girma Charity Foundation provided meals to 24,000 children a day.
Continue reading...Total deaths reach 76 and more than 130,000 displaced as weeks of flooding also affects east African neighbours
Seventy-six people in Kenya have died because of flooding triggered by torrential downpours since March, the government has said, warning residents “to brace for even heavier rainfall”.
Kenya and its east African neighbours have been battered by stronger than usual rain in recent weeks, compounded by the El Niño weather system.
Continue reading...Researchers find that in low and middle-income countries owning spectacles can help people over 35 increase their income
Owning a pair of reading glasses might help people increase their earnings by a third, according to new research.
The study, conducted in Bangladesh, is the first to examine the impact of having a decent pair of spectacles, and researchers found monthly median earnings among one group of people increased from $35.30 to $47.10 within eight months, a rise of 33.4%.
Continue reading...Legislation adopted last year outraged LGBTQ+ community, rights activists, the UN and western nations
Uganda’s constitutional court has rejected a bid to overturn a controversial anti-gay law that is considered one of the toughest in the world.
“We decline to nullify the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 in its entirety, neither will we grant a permanent injunction against its enforcement,” Justice Richard Buteera, Uganda’s deputy chief justice and head of the court, said in the landmark ruling.
Continue reading...Activists welcome sanction on Sarah Achieng Opendi and other legislators against a backdrop of anti-LGBTQ+ oppression in Africa
The Ugandan MP Sarah Achieng Opendi, who called for homosexuals to be castrated during a parliamentary debate on the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ+ laws has been denied a visa to attend a UN meeting in New York next week.
Opendi expressed “shock” after the US embassy in Kampala rejected her application to travel to the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women , pending “administrative” review.
Continue reading...Steven Kabuye was stabbed by unknown assailants on a motorbike after receiving death threats
A prominent Ugandan LGBTQ+ activist is in a critical condition after he was stabbed on his way to work on Wednesday by unknown assailants on a motorbike.
Steven Kabuye, 25, suffered knife wounds and was left for dead in the assault on the outskirts of the capital Kampala before being found by local residents, police said.
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