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/ 25 February 2008

Uganda says rebels break truce

Uganda on Monday accused Lord’s Resistance Army rebels of breaking a truce by attacking civilians in the Central African Republic, threatening apparent progress at talks to end one of the continent’s longest wars. Representatives of the guerrilla group denied the allegation.

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/ 22 February 2008

Uganda rebels walk out of peace talks

Ugandan rebels have walked out of peace talks because the government refused their demands for senior government posts, a rebel spokesperson said on Friday. The two sides have been meeting in Sudan-mediated peace talks since July 2006 in an effort to resolve a brutal 20-year insurgency in northern Uganda.

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/ 20 February 2008

Ebola eradicated in Uganda

Uganda is officially free of the deadly Ebola virus, which killed 37 people in the East African country last year, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday. Forty-two days passed with no new infections — long enough to be sure that there were no cases still in the incubation stage, said the country’s Health Minister, Dr Steven Malinga.

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/ 14 February 2008

Dozens killed in Uganda boat crash

Ugandan marine police have found 30 bodies in Lake Victoria in eastern Uganda after two boats collided earlier this week, police said on Thursday. ”We have called off the operations after recovering 30 bodies from the lake,” said Christopher Kubayi, regional police commander in eastern Uganda.

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/ 13 January 2008

Surgery restores face, and soul, for war victim

The first time a knife was put to Anna Alwoch’s face, her lips were hacked off by rebels. The next two times, sharp blades were used by surgeons to rebuild her mouth. Alwoch is on a list of candidates for plastic surgery to repair her face, along with other victims who were mutilated by members of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda.

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/ 27 December 2007

Uganda says Ebola outbreak receding

Isolation wards for Ebola patients in western Uganda are now empty, a senior health official said on Thursday, voicing hope that the killer fever was finally receding. Sam Okware, who heads the national task force on the outbreak, said a patient admitted on December 22 was the only one in the Bundibugyo hospital’s isolation wards.

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/ 26 December 2007

Ebola panic spreads faster than the disease

Few diseases inspire as much panic as an outbreak of Ebola fever. In Uganda — where 100 000 people die of malaria each year — an epidemic of a new Ebola strain has killed just 36 people and infected 135 others, but is causing widespread terror. However, experts say much of the panic is overblown.

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/ 19 December 2007

Ugandans arrested for not having toilets

Local authorities have arrested at least 100 Ugandans for failing to build toilets in their homes in the midst of a cholera epidemic that has killed eight people and infected 164, state media reported on Wednesday. ”We cannot watch as people die [of cholera],” said north-western Bulisa district administrator Norbert Turyahikayo.

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/ 14 December 2007

Ugandan refugees question rebels’ mea culpa

The rebels whirred up a cloud of orange dust in the stifling heat when they came to meet their victims at Koch Goma Camp in northern Uganda. They had come to plead for forgiveness. But now the dust has settled, and the 17 500-member camp is questioning the sincerity of November’s visit by the Lord’s Resistance Army.

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/ 6 December 2007

Uganda Ebola: At least 22 dead, 93 infected

A new strain of the deadly Ebola virus is thought to have infected 93 people and killed at least 22 in Uganda, including a doctor and three other medical staff looking after patients, a health official said on Thursday. Dr Sam Zaramba, the government’s director of health services, said the doctor had died after looking after a patient in an isolation ward.

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/ 4 December 2007

Just another day at the Tiriri health centre

A blue pick-up truck pulls to a sudden halt outside Tiriri health centre in Uganda. Many hands surround it, lift the woman lying in the back and carry her inside to the examination room. She cannot speak and her breathing is laboured. Sister Mary Magdalene Anyait, the only member of the medical staff, has a look and takes the woman’s blood pressure.

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/ 2 December 2007

Medics flee western Uganda as Ebola spreads

Several dozen medics and support staff have fled western Uganda after their co-workers became infected with the Ebola virus in an outbreak that has already killed 18 people, officials said on Saturday. Ugandan officials appealed for help in dealing with the outbreak of Ebola, a contagious disease that kills up to 90% of those infected.

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/ 22 November 2007

Uganda says mysterious fever contained

Uganda’s Health Ministry on Thursday announced it had contained a mysterious fever that killed 14 people and infected 33 others in the past three weeks. Director of medical services Sam Zaramba said no new cases had been reported in the past two days and those infected were responding to treatment.

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/ 21 November 2007

Progress on Zim election talks, but …

The leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition said on Wednesday that talks with his government over electoral reform have made progress, but added that ensuring implementation will be crucial. He also said the Movement for Democratic Change might shun next year’s election unless it is sure President Robert Mugabe will not rig it.

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/ 20 November 2007

Kampala spruces up for CHOGM summit

Uganda will be seeking to impress the world when it hosts the Commonwealth summit this week and convey a new image of a country best known for its history of brutal regimes and civil strife. Potholes — which had become a byword for Kampala — have been hastily filled, street lighting upgraded and roads lined with trees for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

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/ 11 November 2007

‘In Uganda, oil will be not be a curse’

Uganda hopes that recent oil discoveries will lift it out of poverty, but the conflict-scarred east African country is taking a cautious approach towards its new status as an oil-producing nation. Oil found in the west on the banks of Lake Albert is propelling the country into a new phase of its economic history.

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/ 11 November 2007

Brutal Ugandan rebels ask for forgiveness

Five years ago, Ugandan rebels bayoneted Ellen Atim’s husband and five of her children to death. Atim narrowly escaped and fled with her surviving children to a displacement camp where they have eked out a meagre existence ever since. Yet she says she is prepared to forgive the rebels who tore her family and life apart.

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/ 9 November 2007

Ugandan rebel chief denies killing deputy

Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony has arrested his deputy on suspicion of spying but denies executing him, a top peace mediator said on Friday. Norbert Mao, a top regional politician, said he had just spoken to the fugitive head of the Lord’s Resistance Army by satellite phone at an undisclosed location.

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/ 9 November 2007

Fishermen caught in oil dispute over African lake

Until this year, Robert Kazini had never given much thought to whether he was fishing in Congolese or Ugandan waters; it didn’t matter. Nor did it matter much to Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — until prospectors found oil here. Now, with both countries dreaming of billions of petrodollars that could flow from Lake Albert, an ugly and at times deadly dispute over their border is jeopardising the livelihoods of locals like Kazini.