Chronicle (Zimbabwe)

Ugandan rebel leader charged with treason

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KAMPALA — Ugandan rebel leader, Jamil Mukulu has been sentenced to 14 months at the Luzira high security prison, in Kampala after being formally charged with treason and murder, Daily Monitor reports.

After remarkably evading capture for more than a decade, Mukulu was arrested last year in Tanzania.

Mukulu is alleged to be the head of the Muslim rebel group, Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), believed to have been operating between eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda since the 1990s.

The Ugandan government accused the ADF of being responsibl­e for the killings of Muslim clerics in 2014, when four clerics went missing in Kampala after being kidnapped by unidentifi­ed men.

The treason charge against Mukulu also originates from claims made by Ugandan officials that the ADF had planned to overthrow the government. He is also alleged to be affiliated to internatio­nal terror groups and was put on the UN’s sanction list in 2011 for destabilis­ing the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Jinja Chief Magistrate court sent the ADF leader to Luzira prison after he complained of being tortured in detention and being forced to consume things that were against his religion.

Since his capture in 2015, Mukulu along with his co-accused Mohamed Matovu and Omar Abdallah had been detained at Nalufenya Special Operations Command Centre in Jinja where they claimed to be subjected to torture.

“Nalufenya is not a prison, it is a slaughter house and a pig sty. I am forced to eat pork and drink Waragi. I am also detained with rapists and defilers,” he said.

According to an earlier News24 report, Uganda and the DRC agreed on a plan to share security intelligen­ce to combat rebel groups active along the countries’ border.

DRC President Joseph Kabila and Uganda President Yoweri Museveni made the announceme­nt after meeting in Uganda to discuss security.

The ADF are believed to have killed at least 500 civilians in the Beni region in the DRC’s Kivu province since October 2014.

“We have decided to fight against all forms of recruitmen­t from Uganda,” Museveni said. “We are currently taking steps with security services so that they can exchange the needed informatio­n, but we also recognise that there may be recruitmen­t from Congo.”

Civil unrest in Uganda has plagued the East African country for decades, stemming from the rise in power of President Museveni, who took the presidency by force using guerilla warfare tactics in 1986. — Al Jazeera PARIS — Gabon’s president Ali Bongo is accusing his chief opponent of ballot fraud and a plot to seize power, after Bongo narrowly won re-election in a contested vote that sparked deadly clashes.

Election commission results showed Bongo beat challenger Jean Ping in the oil-rich central African country’s August 27 presidenti­al vote by 1.57 percentage points. Opposition supporters have claimed fraud, and Ping declared himself the rightful winner.

Bongo lashed back on France’s Europe-1 radio yesterday, saying “Ping committed fraud” in his home constituen­cy and others with the help of “cybercrimi­nals”. Bongo did not elaborate on alleged ballot anomalies he said were found.

Ping, also speaking to Europe-1, dismissed the accusation­s and called for internatio­nal help in determinin­g “the truth”.

Internatio­nal pressure is growing for transparen­cy in the vote results. — AFP

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