AFP – A senior member of the Ugandan opposition told AFP on Friday that security forces stormed his home the previous day as the country held elections, shooting dead 10 members of his campaign team.
“Ten were killed inside my house,” Muwanga Kivumbi, member of parliament for the National Unity Platform (NUP) in the Butambala area of central Uganda, told AFP by phone.
Uganda held elections under an internet blackout on Thursday, with President Yoweri Museveni accused by rights groups of “brutal repression” against the opposition as he seeks to extend his 40 years in power.
Kivumbi said he was “emotionally broken” by the attack, which occurred after hundreds of his supporters had gathered at his home after voting ended.
Many fled as security forces stormed the compound, but officers fired through the door of a garage where 10 campaign agents were hiding, said Kivumbi’s wife Zahara Nampewo, a law professor.
The army later came to take away the bodies, the couple said, but they confirmed the death toll from the local hospital.
It was not possible to receive images from the scene because the government has imposed an internet blackout during the election.
“Right now I’m anxious because they have redeployed around home again,” Nampewo said. “I was very shaken personally. Seeing fresh bodies. I mean, that is something that cannot easily go away.”
The couple said there had been a heavy security deployment around them in the days leading up to the election, and their team had been attacked.
