Uganda Country Profile - BBC News

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Landlocked Uganda has transformed itself from a country with a troubled past to one of relative stability and prosperity.

Since its independence from Britain in 1962, the east African nation has seen several coups, followed by Idi Amin's brutal military dictatorship in the 1970s, followed by a five-year war that brought current President Yoweri Museveni to power in 1986.

The country has also had to contend with a brutal 20-year insurgency in the north, led by the Lord's Resistance Army, which has been guilty of numerous crimes against humanity. The conflict in northern Uganda has killed thousands and displaced millions.

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REPUBLIC OF UGANDA: FACTS

Capital: Kampala
Area: 241,038 sq km
Population: 45.8 million
Languages: English, Swahili
Life expectancy: 61 years (men) 65 years (women)

LEADER

President: Yoweri Museveni

President Yoweri Museveni has ruled the country since 1986 when his National Resistance Movement seized power.

He was last re-elected in the January 2021 presidential elections, winning 58% of the vote while popstar-turned-politician Bobi Wine had 35%. The opposition alleged there was widespread fraud.

Mr Museveni has been credited with restoring relative stability and economic prosperity following years of civil war and repression under Milton Obote and Idi Amin and in the 1990s was praised as part of a new generation of African leaders.

His presidency has been marred, however, by invading and occupying DR Congo during the Second Congo War and by participating in other conflicts in Africa's Great Lakes region.

MEDIA

Uganda's constitution guarantees press freedom, but the media are "hindered by laws on fraudulent digital activity, anti-terrorism and public order", says the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) watchdog.Journalists face intimidation, including arrest and assault, especially if they criticise the president and his inner circle, says the Freedom House NGO.

However, social media are part of a "robust culture of independent journalism", Freedom House says. Uganda has a lively broadcasting scene, with more than 200 radio stations and around 30 TV networks

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TIMELINE

Late Ugandan leader Idi Amin — Image caption,
Idi Amin expelled Uganda's Asians

Some key dates in Uganda's history:

c. 1000BC - Bantu speaking farmers arrive in southern Uganda, while Nilotic speakers settle in the northeast.

c. 1000BC-500AD - Kitara Empire controls East Africa's great lakes region. At its peak, the empire, also known as the Empire of the Sun, Empire of the Moon, rules much of the Nile valley.

13th Century - Buganda unified under its first king Kato Kintu, the founder of Buganda's Kintu dynasty.

18th-19th Centuries - Buganda and its rival Bunyoro become the region's most powerful kingdoms.

1830s - Arab traders move into the region from the Indian Ocean.

1869 - Khedive Ismail Pasha of Egypt seeks to annex land north of Lake Victoria and sends British explorer,Samuel Baker on a military expedition. Baker is defeated by the Banyoro kingdom.

1886 - Series of religious wars in Buganda, initially between Muslims and Christians and then, from 1890, between Protestant and Catholics factions of the population.

1894 - British government annexes Buganda and adjoining territories to create the Uganda protectorate in order to protect the river Nile trade route.

1890s - Labourers from British India are brought to East Africa, initially to build the Uganda Railway.

1962 - Independence: Federal constitution with Muteesa, King of Buganda, as president and Milton Obote as prime minister.

1963 - Uganda becomes a republic.

1962-66 - Buganda crisis. Uganda's immediate post-independence years are dominated by a power struggle between the central government and the largest regional kingdom - Buganda.

1967 - Milton Obote seizes power in a coup and abolishes Uganda's tribal kingdoms.

1971-79 - General Idi Amin seizes power.

1972 - Amin expels thousands of Ugandan Asians.

1978-79 - Uganda invades Tanzania but Tanzania retaliates, forcing Amin to flee the country.

1980 - Milton Obote returns to power.

1980-86 - Ugandan Bush War between Obote's government and a number of rebel groups, most importantly the National Resistance Army (NRA). Up to 500,000 people are killed in the fighting.

1986 - Rebel leader Yoweri Museveni seizes power, heralding a period of stability.

2005 - Referendum endorses multi-party politics but lifts presidential term limits, allowing President Museveni to stand for a third term.

LRA leader Joseph Kony — Image caption,
Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army has blighted northern Uganda for years

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