Sunday, May 01, 2011

5 Killed, 150 wounded in violent Uganda protests



The wave of aftershocks continue in the African and Middle East regions as another sub-Saharan country, Uganda, rise to protest in the last two weeks over rising cost of fuel and food.
Five demonstrators were reported to have been killed today when the police fired at unarmed civilians with tear gas, live and rubber bullets. Over 150 were injured and 360 were arrested, said the NY Times.
Witnesses said women and girls were also beaten.
The attached YouTube video shows the violent crackdown with burning of tires and security forces beating people in the capital Kampala.
Angry supporters of opposition leader Kizza Besigye who was arrested on Thursday have boosted today's demonstrations.
A man in the video who was beaten by the cops refused medical treatment but instead went to the parliament to talk to the speaker.
Uganda's leader Yoweri Museveni has been in power since 1986 and was said to be loosing hold of the country. He was involved in the war that ousted Idi Amin Dada.
The political tsunami seem to be spreading across the continent with violent protests that started in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya spreading to other autocratic-ruled states such as Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Swaziland.
A landlocked country, Uganda is found in East Africa sharing territories with Sudan, Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania. It has over 32 million inhabitants.
Details of this report here.
allvoices

1 comment:

  1. I don’t want to sound discouraging, but it seems unlikely that Museveni will be shaken by these protests. There are many differences between Uganda and the successful democratic uprising in Egypt: wealth and education, social media uptake, loyalty of the security forces, party political agendas, and donor agendas all point to a high probability that Museveni will survive these challenges to his rule. http://iddbirmingham.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/the-ugandan-protests-and-why-museveni-will-not-be-joining-ben-ali-and-mubarak-anytime-soon/

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