By Grace MATSIKO KAMPALA, Dec 4, 2023 (AFP) – For nearly three decades, the chaotic, overcrowded Owino secondhand market in Uganda’s capital has been the cornerstone of Hadija Nakimuli’s life, helping the widowed shopkeeper build a house and raise 12 children. But a potential government ban on the sale of used clothing threatens to sever this crucial lifeline for Nakimuli and tens of thousands of vendors like her. “Where is our future if they stop […]
Tag: Uganda
Anthrax outbreak in Uganda kills 17 in November
KAMPALA, Nov 30, 2023 (AFP) – At least 17 people have died in an anthrax outbreak in southern Uganda this month, a local official told AFP Thursday, saying the situation was “under control”. Anthrax is spread through a bacterium that is encased in a tough, rod-shaped shell. The spores exist naturally in the soil and commonly infect livestock which ingest or inhale them while grazing. Humans can become infected from contact through breathing in the […]
Ugandan woman, 70, gives birth to twins: doctor
KAMPALA, Nov 30, 2023 (AFP) – A Ugandan woman aged 70 has given birth to twins, her doctor said Thursday, in what the mother hailed as a miracle. Safina Namukwaya described her joy at the arrival of the twins who were born on Wednesday at a medical facility in the capital Kampala, where she had received fertility treatment. “This is extraordinary achievement, delivering twins to Africa’s oldest mother at 70 years,” Doctor Edward Tamale Sali, […]
Uganda set to declare end of Ebola outbreak
Kampala, Uganda (AFP) Uganda said on Monday it was expecting to declare an end to an Ebola virus outbreak that emerged late last year and has claimed the lives of at least 56 people. If no new case is reported by Tuesday, the health ministry said it would formally announce the end of the outbreak on Wednesday. According to the World Health Organization, an outbreak of the disease ends when there are no new […]
Children among nine dead in Uganda New Year stampede
Kampala, Uganda (AFP) At least nine people died, most aged between 10 and 20, in a shopping mall crush as revellers rang in the New Year in Uganda’s capital, police said on Sunday. After fireworks outside the Freedom City mall in Kampala, “a stampede ensued, resulting in the instant deaths of five people and injuries to several others,” national police spokesman Luke Owoyesigyire said. Four others died on their way to hospital “largely due to […]
Ebola trial vaccines heading to Uganda: WHO
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) – Three candidate vaccines against the strain of Ebola wreaking havoc in Uganda will be shipped to the East African country next week for trials, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. Since Uganda declared an Ebola outbreak on September 20, cases have spread across the country, including to the capital Kampala, and have claimed 55 lives, with 22 more believed to have died. Uganda has been struggling to rein in the outbreak caused […]
Residents on edge as Uganda reports Ebola cases in Kampala
Kampala, Uganda | AFP | by Grace Matsiko Uganda has reported 14 confirmed cases of Ebola in the greater Kampala region, the country’s health minister said Monday, but sought to assure anxious residents that the situation in the capital was under control. So far, the death toll across the country from the Ebola epidemic declared in late September has climbed to 44, according to World Health Organisation figures issued last week. Uganda’s health ministry […]
Investors agree $10 billion for controversial Uganda oil project
by Michael O’HAGAN Agence France-Presse KAMPALA, Uganda (AFP) – Chinese and French oil giants finally sealed a $10-billion deal Tuesday to unlock Uganda’s energy resources and build a vast regional oil pipeline, a mega-project that has incensed environmental groups. The so-called Final Investment Decision should pave the way for the export of millions of barrels of black gold that was first discovered in 2006 in Uganda, one of the world’s most biodiverse regions. The decision […]
Uganda air strikes target rebels in DR Congo
KINSHASA, DR Congo (AFP) – Uganda launched air strikes and artillery attacks targeting the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group in eastern DR Congo on Tuesday, in an operation agreed with Congolese forces, both sides said. “As announced, targeted and concerted action with the Ugandan army started today with air strikes and artillery fire from Uganda against positions of the terrorist ADF in the DRC,” Congolese government spokesman and Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya wrote on […]
Search for survivors ends as Uganda building collapse kills six
KAMPALA, Uganda (AFP) — Rescuers in Kampala called off the search for survivors on Monday after six people were killed in a building collapse during a heavy rainstorm, police said, following an emergency effort that saw eight people including two children pulled to safety. Images posted on social media on Sunday showed construction workers and passers-by digging through debris with their bare hands and firefighters using cutting equipment to saw through buckled metal in a […]
Hundreds of Ugandans given fake Covid jabs: health officials
KAMPALA, Uganda (AFP) — At least 800 people in Uganda were given fake coronavirus vaccines — some injected with water — in a scam that involved “unscrupulous” doctors and health workers, government officials said Wednesday. The counterfeit jabs were administered over May and June during a deadly surge of the coronavirus in the East African nation, when new infections soared to record highs of about 1,700 cases per day. The fraudsters targeted people looking to […]
Tanzania, Uganda, ink deal on $3.5b oil pipeline project
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AFP) — Tanzania and Uganda signed an agreement Sunday to commence construction on a 1,445-kilometre (900 mile) oil pipeline through East Africa that conservation groups say threatens livelihoods and fragile ecosytems. The project focuses on oilfields in landlocked Uganda discovered in 2006 and proposes pumping the crude to the coast via a pipeline across Tanzania at an estimated cost of $3.5 billion. The multi-national plan is led by French petroleum giant […]





