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Uganda MP 'alive but weak' after abduction

Uganda MP 'alive but weak' after abduction

Eyewitness News2 days ago
KAMPALA - A Ugandan member of parliament critical of President Yoweri Museveni has been found "alive but very weak" after being abducted over the weekend, his wife told AFP on Monday.
Uganda has seen increased pressure on opposition figures ahead of presidential elections in January, when Museveni will seek to extend his nearly 40 years in power.
On Sunday, the Uganda Law Society raised the alarm over the "enforced disappearance" of Barnabas Tinkasiimire, a lawyer and MP.
In a statement, the country's bar association said a family source confirmed Tinkasiimire was picked up by "heavily armed, drone-operating security operatives" at a petrol station in the capital Kampala.
Speaking to AFP on Monday, Tinkasiimire's wife said he had since been found in a suburb of the city.
"They dumped him in Namungoona in the early morning hours," she said, adding that he went missing on Friday.
"He is alive but very weak. We have taken him for medical attention," she said.
Tinkasiimire is a member of Museveni's ruling party, the National Resistance Movement.
But in a post on X, opposition leader Bobi Wine said Tinkasiimire "has been very critical of Museveni's effort to impose his brutal son on our country, which his family believes is the reason he is being persecuted and held incommunicado".
Museveni's son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, is the head of the Ugandan army and widely seen as the likely successor to his father.
Kainerugaba last month boasted that he had kidnapped one of Wine's aides and was torturing him in his basement.
The United Nations and several rights organisations have expressed concern about repression against opposition groups ahead of the election.
"Enforced disappearances are currently a serious problem in many parts of Uganda," the law society said.
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