Over 100 members of Uganda’s biggest opposition party, the National Unity Platform (NUP), have been charged with various offences, including unlawful assembly, related to violence around last week’s election.
The charges come after President Yoweri Museveni was declared the landslide winner of the January 15 poll, sparking protests and allegations of widespread irregularities from NUP leader Bobi Wine. Wine’s whereabouts remain unknown after he said he escaped a raid by the military on his home.
NUP officials deny their supporters were involved in violent activity, claiming they were targeted and arrested.
The charges have added to tensions in the country, with the U.N. Human Rights Office previously accusing Uganda’s military and police of using live ammunition to disperse peaceful rallies and carrying out arbitrary detentions and abductions of opposition supporters.
Museveni, 81, has been in power since 1986 and is Africa’s third longest-ruling head of state, with his latest win meaning he will have been in power for nearly half a century when his new term ends in 2031.
