Uganda\u2019s army has announced the suspension of all military cooperation with Germany after accusing its ambassador, Mathias Schauer, of being involved in \u201csubversive activities\u201d and of being \u201cwholly unqualified\u201d to be in the East African state.<\/p>\n
The army did not back-up its claim but its decision signals a sharp deterioration in relations between the two nations.<\/p>\n
Rejecting the accusations, a German foreign ministry spokesperson called them \u201cabsurd and without any merit\u201d, the Reuters news agency reports.<\/p>\n
The highly unusual attack on Schauer came after he reportedly raised concerns about army chief Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is the president\u2019s son, at a meeting last week.<\/p>\n
On X recently, the general threatened to behead opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine.<\/p>\n
Gen Kainerugaba also boasted about torturing Wine\u2019s bodyguard after detaining him.<\/p>\n
Rights groups have long accused the Ugandan government of targeting the opposition, especially in the run-up to elections.<\/p>\n
Wine is expected to run against President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power for nearly four decades, in an election due next year.<\/p>\n
Museveni\u2019s critics allege that the government is run by a family dynasty \u2013 his wife, Janet Museveni is the minister of education, and his brother, Gen Salim Saleh, is the chief coordinator of a government programme known as Operation Wealth Creation.<\/p>\n
Gen Saleh held a private meeting with European Union (EU) diplomats last week, where Schauer \u2013 Germany\u2019s ambassador to Uganda since 2020 \u2013 raised concerns about the army chief\u2019s controversial tweets, and the \u201creputational damage\u201d it was causing to Uganda, local media reported.<\/p>\n
Gen Kainerugaba hit back with a post on Sunday, saying he was \u201chaving issues\u201d with the German ambassador \u201cthat has to do with him as a person\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is wholly unqualified to be in Uganda. It has nothing to do with the great German people. Whom I admire a lot,\u201d he posted.<\/p>\n
In a separate statement, army spokesman Col Chris Magezi said Uganda was suspending with immediate effect all defence and military cooperation with Germany because of \u201ccredible intelligence reports\u201d that Schauer was involved in \u201csubversive activities\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe suspension will remain in force until the full resolution of the matter of the Ambassador\u2019s involvement with pseudo political-military forces operating in the country against the Ugandan government,\u201d the statement added, without giving evidence to substantiate its claims.<\/p>\n
On its website, Germany\u2019s embassy in Uganda said that bilateral trade between the two nations was worth around $335m (\u00a3247m) in 2024, and their relationship was based on \u201cstability and trust\u201d.<\/p>\n
It did not give details of military cooperation between the two nations.<\/p>\n
Uganda is heavily involved in peacekeeping operations, including in Somalia where it is helping to fight armed Islamist groups trying to overthrow the government.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Uganda\u2019s army has announced the suspension of all military cooperation with Germany after accusing its ambassador, Mathias Schauer, of being involved in \u201csubversive activities\u201d and of being \u201cwholly unqualified\u201d to be in the East African state. The army did not back-up its claim but its decision signals a sharp deterioration in relations between the two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}