Women and girls returning to northern Uganda from forced conscription into the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) struggle to resettle in their home communities because of stigma and a severe shortage of reintegration facilities tailored to their needs, say analysts and returnees. After leaving the LRA, former female combatants return to their villages with children forcibly fathered by LRA commanders and delivered in the bush. They are often shunned by their families and stigmatised as 'bush women' by their communities.

The UN refugee agency said Tuesday (02 March) it was alarmed by an upsurge in violence against civilians by a rebel Ugandan group in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. A particularly worrying development is that the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, appears to be targeting more populated areas.

At least 18 members of opposition political groups are still under detention by the government, weeks after the presidential elections. According to the opposition, several supporters were still under detention while others are missing. Inter-Party Cooperation (IPC) chairman Ken Lyukyamuzi said the government is especially harassing supporters of the Democratic Party and Forum for Democratic Change and other parties in the IPC in different parts of the country.

Is Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni beating the same fateful path as Ben Ali, Mubarak and Gaddafi? J. Oloka-Onyango analyses Museveni’s latest election victory.

Kampala's Citizens' Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) calls for a fair and just settlement to Uganda's post-election tension.

On 11 February, 2011, the Refugee Law Project (RLP) in collaboration with the Ugandan Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights & Constitutional Law launched a revealing documentary on the realities of lesbian, gay and transgender asylum. This video captures remarks made by Professor Ben Twinomugisha, Dean of Law, Makerere University during the panel discussion after the launch. Copies of the documentary will be available in a couple of weeks. Please email [email]info@refugeelawproject.org to book a copy.

The police have paraded a Tanzanian national; a key suspect in last year’s twin bomb blasts that killed more than 70 people in Kampala. Hijar Seleman Nyamadondo, 31, was paraded at the Rapid Response Unit (RRU) headquarters in Kireka amid tight security hours after he was extradited to Uganda by the Tanzanian authorities.

Could what happened in Egypt happen in Uganda?

Museveni blazes ahead of the opposition...

While the US has condemned egregious examples of rights-violating policies in Uganda, it still funds HIV interventions that are inherently anti-LGBT (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender) and anti-woman, says this Huffington Post article. 'They assume and reinforce the idea that everyone is heterosexual, everyone is going to get married, and everyone has control over when and with whom they and their partner have sex; ideas that are flat-out wrong and result in useless HIV interventions and rancid discrimination.'

African Union (AU) election observers say Uganda's presidential poll suffered from several shortcomings, while two losing candidates are calling for Egypt-style protests. Two of the losing presidential candidates on Monday threatened to mobilise mass protests against the government. Museveni said last week he would jail anyone who tried to spark Egypt-style unrest.

Murdered gay rights activist David Kato was mocked at a UN-backed debate on Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill, according to a US diplomat in Kampala in a leaked American embassy cable. The diplomat said Kato, who was bludgeoned to death near his home in the capital, Kampala, last month, delivered a well-written speech against the bill, but his words were almost inaudible due to 'his evident nervousness'. Throughout his talk a member of the Ugandan Human Rights Commission 'openly joked and snickered' with supporters of the bill, the diplomat claimed in the cable.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, one of Africa's longest serving leaders, won election to a fourth term in office by a huge margin on Sunday but the opposition rejected the outcome. Electoral commission results handed Museveni 68 per cent of the vote against challenger Kizza Besigye's 26 per cent.

In January, a judge ruled in favour of a group of gay individuals stating that all Ugandans, regardless of their sexual orientation, have a right to privacy and dignity. One of the plaintiffs recounted her story to the Kampala Dispatch.??

Spin the wheel and get a tip to spoil your better half; spend more time together or go out for a romantic evening: A new Ugandan HIV prevention programme hopes a 'love wheel' will encourage couples to seek excitement within their own marriages rather than in the arms outsiders. The wheel, categorised into eight thematic areas such as family, fitness, fun, friends and finances, has a number of tips relating to each theme. Currently stocked in supermarkets in the capital, Kampala, its promoters say they have sold more than 1,500 units since its launch in November 2010.

The rebel group that terrorised Ugandan civilians for more than two decades, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), could continue to haunt the people of Central Africa if the Ugandan government fails to properly support demobilisation efforts, according to a new report. Compiled by the Washington-based Enough Project, 'Too Far From Home: Demobilizing the Lord's Resistance Army' tables the many challenges facing ex-combatants attempting to lay down their weapons, in what has become Africa's longest running armed conflict. The report shows the Ugandan government is complicating attempts to rehabilitate rebels by pressuring former combatants to fight with the army, sometimes without pay, and not adhering to the country's amnesty laws.

A Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) team is in Uganda to observe this week’s elections. The team is led by Mr Simbi Mubako from Zimbabwe. The mission follows an invitation from the Ugandan Government. Comesa has in the past deployed similar observer missions to Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The regional bloc said in a press statement that the observation of Uganda’s polls is meant to contribute to transparency of the process.

'If David’s murder stimulates discussion about the violence and discrimination facing people because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity, then his death will not have been completely in vain. That discussion must inevitably address the question of decriminalizing homosexuality. Criminal sanctions for homosexuality remain on the statute books in more than 70 countries, including Uganda. Such laws are an anachronism, in most cases a hangover from the old days of colonial rule.'

Six people were remanded at Buwama police prison in the outskirts of Ugandan capital Kampala for booing President Yoweri Museveni, police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba said. Speaking to the local Daily Monitor Monday (07 February), Ms Nabakooba said the matter was before court. Early reports, however, published by allege that 20 people were arrested for booing the President while on a campaign trail at Buwama market.

A low-cost maternal ultrasound system that began as a class project by a group of college students at the University of Washington in Seattle is to be tested by midwives in Uganda, a country with one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates. Around 10 Ugandan midwives will be selected to participate in the field test project. The experiment will evaluate whether the device matches the midwives' needs and skills. The device is designed to enable midwives to detect conditions that can complicate pregnancies and birth.