Ugandan presidential challenger Bobi Wine and team arrested

Ugandan presidential challenger Bobi Wine and team arrested

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“Bobi Wine and his entire campaign team arrested in Kalangala! Media blocked,” the tweet said.

No further details about their arrest have been made available yet.

Wine is challenging incumbent President Yoweri Museveni – who has been in power for more than thirty years – in the January 14 election.
The presidential candidate has accused Museveni of being a dictator responsible for human rights abuses, after at least 45 people were killed last month during protests sparked by Wine’s earlier arrest for violating coronavirus regulations during a campaign.

He said one of his bodyguards was run over and killed by a military police truck on Sunday while the guard was taking a journalist to hospital.

A Ugandan army spokesman denied that Wine’s bodyguard had been targeted.

In an interview with CNN earlier this month, Wine said he had been killed almost twice in the past few weeks and called on the international community to hold the Ugandan government accountable before next month’s election.

Although authorities have said the restrictions are needed to curb the spread of Covid-19, opposition members and their supporters say they are an excuse to curb pre-election campaigns.

Uganda's Bobi Wine says his bodyguard was 'deliberately' killed

United Nations human rights activists on Tuesday released a statement expressing serious concern about the violence ahead of Uganda’s presidential election. They called on the authorities to put an end to the arrest, detention and judicial harassment of political opponents, civil society leaders and human rights defenders. “

Nicholas Opiyo, a leading human rights activist, was arrested on December 23 along with four other individuals. He is accused of money laundering and will be tried accordingly, according to a statement from the authorities.

‘Since the publication of the guidelines on the conduct of elections during Covid-19 in June by the Uganda Electoral Commission, we have gradually shrunk in the civil space, and abuse and misuse of health-related restrictions to combat the dissent in the country election on January 14, “UN experts said.

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