Category World News

Uganda’s military chief, the son of longtime President Yoweri Museveni, says he is holding a missing opposition activist in his basement and threatened violence against him, after the man’s party said he was abducted.

Eddie Mutwe went missing on April 27 after being grabbed near the capital Kampala by armed men, the National Unity Platform (NUP) party has said.

Mutwe acts as the chief bodyguard for Uganda’s leading opposition figure, Bobi Wine.

In a social media post late on Thursday, Ugandan General Muhoozi Kainerugaba said Mutwe had been captured “like a grasshopper”.

“He is in my basement … You are next!” Kainerugaba wrote on X in response to a post by Wine saying that Mutwe had been abducted.

Kainerugaba, who is known for his incendiary social media posts, also alluded to Mutwe being tortured, saying he had beaten him and shaved his head.

“If they keep on provoking us, we shall discipline them even more,” he said of the opposition.

He is in my basement. Learning Runyankore. You are next! https://t.co/8pMgdGCru2

Kainerugaba’s comments come amid an escalating crackdown on the Ugandan opposition and as Wine was set to launch a “protest vote” campaign in advance of a general election in January.

Spokespeople for the Ugandan government, military and police did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency.

On Friday, Wine – a former singer whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi and who has become the leading opponent to Museveni – said on X that security forces had “just raided and cordoned off our headquarters”.

He also condemned the abduction of Mutwe, telling the AFP news agency that it was “a reminder to the world as to how law and order has broken down in Uganda”.

The Ugandan government has faced international condemnation over the abduction of opposition figures, including veteran leader Kizza Besigye, who was seized in Kenya last year and forcibly returned to face treason charges.

Museveni, who has ruled since 1986 and plans to seek re-election in January, has denied allegations of human rights abuses.

But the Uganda Law Society said the abduction of Mutwe, Wine’s chief bodyguard, was not an isolated incident.

Instead, it is “part of a systematic campaign to silence dissent and crush the aspirations of young people yearning for freedom”, the group said in a statement.

The Uganda Human Rights Commission, which is tasked with investigating abuses and monitoring the government’s human rights record, said it issued a release order directing the authorities to release Mutwe on Friday.

The move was welcomed as a “bold step” by David Lewis Rubongoya, secretary-general of the National Unity Platform party.

📢 📢RELEASE ORDER📌
We have issued a release order directing the @cdfupdf @mkainerugaba and UPDf @MODVA_UPDF to release Edward Rogers Ssebuufu aka @eddie_mutwe with immediate effect.

The order was issued by our @ChairpersonUhrc .@ckaheru @lo_apitta @SimeoNsubuga @mutumba_n… pic.twitter.com/eYQFRv1JzN

Uganda’s military chief, the son of longtime President Yoweri Museveni, says he is holding a missing opposition activist in his basement and threatened violence against him, after the man’s party said he was abducted.

Eddie Mutwe went missing on April 27 after being grabbed near the capital Kampala by armed men, the National Unity Platform (NUP) party has said.

Mutwe acts as the chief bodyguard for Uganda’s leading opposition figure, Bobi Wine.

In a social media post late on Thursday, Ugandan General Muhoozi Kainerugaba said Mutwe had been captured “like a grasshopper”.

“He is in my basement … You are next!” Kainerugaba wrote on X in response to a post by Wine saying that Mutwe had been abducted.

Kainerugaba, who is known for his incendiary social media posts, also alluded to Mutwe being tortured, saying he had beaten him and shaved his head.

“If they keep on provoking us, we shall discipline them even more,” he said of the opposition.

He is in my basement. Learning Runyankore. You are next! https://t.co/8pMgdGCru2

Kainerugaba’s comments come amid an escalating crackdown on the Ugandan opposition and as Wine was set to launch a “protest vote” campaign in advance of a general election in January.

Spokespeople for the Ugandan government, military and police did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency.

On Friday, Wine – a former singer whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi and who has become the leading opponent to Museveni – said on X that security forces had “just raided and cordoned off our headquarters”.

He also condemned the abduction of Mutwe, telling the AFP news agency that it was “a reminder to the world as to how law and order has broken down in Uganda”.

The Ugandan government has faced international condemnation over the abduction of opposition figures, including veteran leader Kizza Besigye, who was seized in Kenya last year and forcibly returned to face treason charges.

Museveni, who has ruled since 1986 and plans to seek re-election in January, has denied allegations of human rights abuses.

But the Uganda Law Society said the abduction of Mutwe, Wine’s chief bodyguard, was not an isolated incident.

Instead, it is “part of a systematic campaign to silence dissent and crush the aspirations of young people yearning for freedom”, the group said in a statement.

The Uganda Human Rights Commission, which is tasked with investigating abuses and monitoring the government’s human rights record, said it issued a release order directing the authorities to release Mutwe on Friday.

The move was welcomed as a “bold step” by David Lewis Rubongoya, secretary-general of the National Unity Platform party.

📢 📢RELEASE ORDER📌
We have issued a release order directing the @cdfupdf @mkainerugaba and UPDf @MODVA_UPDF to release Edward Rogers Ssebuufu aka @eddie_mutwe with immediate effect.

The order was issued by our @ChairpersonUhrc .@ckaheru @lo_apitta @SimeoNsubuga @mutumba_n… pic.twitter.com/eYQFRv1JzN

After rocket fire directed at Israel and led to counterstrikes, Lebanon’s top security body has warned the Palestinian organization Hamas against using the country’s territory for purposes that might threaten national security.

Following a 14-month conflict between Israel and the armed Lebanese group Hezbollah, an ally of  Hamas, the Higher Defence Council issued the warning on Friday as Lebanon was under growing US pressure to disarm organizations outside state control.

The country’s authorities are also attempting to establish their authority throughout, particularly in the south, close to Israel’s border.

According to Lebanese authorities, Israel has nearly daily violated the US-brokered November 2024 truce, including three airstrikes against Beirut as a result.

Lebanon should not be a launchpad for instability, the council’s president Joseph Aoun said in a statement, or it should be drawn into pointless wars.

The phrase “the utmost measures and necessary procedures will be put to end any act that violates Lebanese sovereignty” was added.

Aoun, who previously served as army commander, has pledged to bring all weapons under the state’s control, but he has acknowledged that the US has been pressing Lebanon to do, making it “diculous” to disarm it.

The council’s secretary-general, Mohammad al-Mustafa, told reporters on Friday that while Aoun emphasized the importance of Palestinian rights, he also emphasized that Lebanese stability should not be compromised.

Hamas has a long history in Lebanon, including in camps that house tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees who have been there for a long time and for whom Lebanese security forces have lacked authority.

After Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, when Israel launched a massive bombardment campaign in Gaza, Hamas fighters in Lebanon launched rockets across the southern border into Israel in solidarity with Palestinians.

In addition to the deputy chief of Hamas, an Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have since caused several Hamas commanders to lose their lives, including the group’s deputy chief in early 2024.

Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued to carry out deadly raids on Lebanon because of security concerns.

The Lebanese army detained Lebanese and Palestinian people accused of firing rockets at Israel on March 22 and 28 in an effort to address Israel’s and the US’s concerns, which brokered the ceasefire.

Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the attacks, despite the fact that no one has claimed responsibility for them.

A Lebanese security source confirmed to the AFP news agency that Hamas members had been detained.

Local authorities claimed that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which declared on Thursday that it had “liberated” al-Nahud from the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), had looted the market, homes, and cars.

According to Al Jazeera, a doctor, a journalist, and a police officer have all been killed as paramilitaries have fought their way out of the city, which has been under the control of the SAF since the start of the conflict, which has resulted in the detention of more than 12 million people and the destitution of tens of thousands.

As fighting between the RSF and the SAF intensifies in Darfur, where 542 people have died in just three weeks, according to the UN, control over al-Nahud has gotten more important, according to the UN.

After losing Khartoum, the country’s capital, last month, in a bid to seize the region’s most populous city, el-Fasher, 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of al-Nahud, the RSF has been doubling down on Darfur in recent weeks.

Hunderte of thousands of people have reportedly fled the desert to the town of Tawila as a result of recent violence in El-Fasher and the nearby Zamzam&nbsp refugee camps.

The paramilitary group has been approving of Khartoum once more as it continues its campaign there, shelling the presidential palace in its second attack on the capital in less than a week.

The army’s General Command headquarters was bombarded by the RSF in Khartoum on Saturday.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, said on Thursday that the “horror unfolding in Sudan knows no bounds” in response to the death toll in Darfur and the extrajudicial executions carried out by both sides in Khartoum state.

An executive order that has radically altered the US government, the economy, and foreign policy has marked Trump’s first 100 days in office. His actions have sparked a significant political unrest.

Does his political opposition, however, have the necessary strength to oppose his policies?

After a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck off Chile and Argentina, the country’s authorities issued a tsunami warning and ordered evacuations.

Due to the risk of a tsunami, the Chilean National Service for Disaster Prevention and Response issued a “red alert” on Friday for the country’s Antarctic and southernmost Magallenas regions.

The organization claimed that hundreds of people had been forced to leave a number of communities, including Puerto Williams, in a post on its website.

The National Disaster Prevention and Response System, it continued, “is still assessing the damage to basic services and infrastructure, as well as the impact on people.”

Initial reports of no injuries or damage have been untrue.

The Drake Passage, which is located between Cape Horn and Antarctica, was only 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep when the earthquake struck, according to the US Geological Survey.

The most populous and largest region of Chile is located in Magallanes, which is also one of its least populated regions. Approximately 166, 000 people lived in 2017, according to government figures.

Gabriel Boric, president of Chile, stated that the earthquake’s aftermath had been accompanied by all available resources.

In a social media post, he wrote, “We call for the evacuation of the entire Magallanes region.” Our duty at this time is to be prepared and pay attention to the authorities.

Sirens blared in the background as people calmly evaded in social media videos.

In the upcoming hours, waves are expected to pass bases in Antarctica and cities in Chile’s extreme south, according to the hydrographic and oceanographic service (SHOA).

Local authorities in the Argentine city of Ushuaia, which is considered to be the southernmost nation in the world, temporarily suspended all water activities and navigation in the Beagle Channel.