𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐄𝐖𝐒 𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐔𝐏

ISSUE 187
𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐎𝐎𝐍 𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍
𝐉𝐀𝐍𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 24, 2023
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🇺🇬 Mental health-related illnesses on the rise – Psychiatrists
📌Psychiatrists at Butabika National Mental Referral Hospital say mental health-related cases have increased over the last two years. The Executive Director of the hospital, Dr. Juliet Nakku cited the COVID-19 pandemic as among the problems which are triggering the increase in mental-related illnesses. Dr Nakku says in every 10 people, 4 of them are suffering from depression.

🇺🇬 Health officials worried of rise in Malaria infections and deaths
📌The Ministry of Health is organizing health camps in regions that have registered an upsurge in malaria infections. This follows reports that the country is experiencing a surge in malaria infections with numbers jumping from 100,000 cases in 2021 to one hundred ninety-nine thousand six hundred ninety-five cases (199,695) cases in 2022.

🇺🇬 Police blocks illegal Opposition activities against Oil and Gas 
📌Police in Kampala have blocked illegal anti Oil and Gas activities  that were planned to be conducted at Hotel Emerald in  which Opposition leaders, Col. Dr Kizza Besigye and Robert Kyagulanyi had been invited to speak as penalists on tuesday, January 24th, 2023.The meeting had allegedly not been cleared by the Inspector General of Police as required by law. Security described the event as unlawful and had malicious intentions.

🇺🇬 ICT in talks with telecom companies to reduce internet costs
📌Prof. William Bazeyo, the chairperson of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) policy which is still in draft form at the Ministry of ICT has asked  Government to urgently cut internet costs to facilitate the new innovation for job creation for youth graduates. However, the permanent secretary of the ICT ministry, Aminah Zawedde says the internet cost is still unaffordable but her Ministry is in discussion with the telecommunication companies to have them reduced.

🇺🇬 MP Ssewanyana hospitalized at Mulago Referral Hospital
📌Makindye West Member of Parliament Allan Ssewanyana has been admitted at Mulago National Referral Hospital. Nakawa West MP Joel Ssenyonyi says  the MP whose health condition had worsened was transferred from Murchison Bay at Luzira prison yesterday. He says preliminary information shows that the legislator has lung issues and cannot walk or stand on his own.

🇺🇬 NGOs ask URBRA to intervene in NSSF impasse
📌Leaders of Non-Government Organisations under the NGO Forum have asked the Uganda Retirements Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA) to intervene and ensure the savers’ interest at National Social Security Fund (NSSF) is protected. While addressing journalists at their offices in Kababagala, the chairperson of the NGO Forum, Magret Sekagya expressed concern that most savers are worried that their money might not be safe.

🇺🇬 BoU on spot over sale of Co-operative Bank assets
📌The Office of the Solicitor General has asked the Bank of Uganda (BoU) to explain the process regarding the sale of assets belonging to the defunct Co-operative Bank. In a letter dated January 11, 2023, addressed to the Legal Counsel; BoU Margaret Kasule, the Solicitor General claimed that the details of the sale of the assets of the bank were needed as the Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (MTIC) Francis Mwebesa had sought legal opinion regarding the re-establishment of the bank.

🇺🇬 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐀𝐊𝐀: Opposition politicians, lawyers and relatives of remanded MPs at Masaka High Court ahead of bail application
📌Several Opposition politicians, mostly members of the National Unity Platform (NUP), lawyers and relatives of remanded MPs Allan Ssewanyana and Muhammad Ssegirinya  are at Masaka High Court ahead of their bail application on January 24, 2023. Ssewanyana & Ssegirinya have been on remand following their arrest on charges of murder, attempted murder and aiding & abetting terrorism following 2021 spate of killings in greater Masaka which left 26 people dead.

🇺🇬 KABALE: Unidentified body recovered from stream
📌Police in Kabale is investigating circumstances surrounding the death of an unidentified male adult whose decomposing body was discovered floating on Rwabakazi stream, Butobere cell in Kabale municipality. ASP Elly Maate, the Kigezi region Police spokesman has called on  members of the public who could be  missing their  dear ones to visit the Kabale Referral Hospital mortuary so that the body is identified and taken for a decent burial.

🇺🇬 IBANDA: Woman beheaded, body dumped
📌Police in Ibanda is investigating circumstances under which unknown assailants beheaded an unidentified female adult before dumping her body at Mile 58 along Ibanda-Kamwenge road. According to ASP Samson Kasasira, the Rwizi Regional Police spokesperson, the decomposing body was discovered by children who were collecting firewood in Rwebirago cell, Kashozi parish in Ishongororo sub county who informed authorities. Police says the deceased was  murdered from somewhere and the body without a head dumped in the area a few days ago.

ACROSS BORDERS
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🌍 KENYA: Raila wants President Ruto and his Government to resign
📌Azimio La Umoja leader Raila Odinga wants President Ruto and all leaders in the Kenya Kwanza Government because him and his supporters do not recognise Ruto as the President of Kenya, alongside all officials in office with him.

🌍 DRC: 23 killed in ADF attack on the East
📌Suspected Allied Democratic Forces fighters have killed at least 23 people in eastern DR Congo. According to the local civil society figure Roger Wangeve, the attack occurred in the village of Makugwe, in the Beni area of North Kivu province were the ADF first attacked 17 people in a small bar where they were drinking beer, and executed them.

🌍 DRC: Inter-Peace talks to resume in February in Eastern Region
📌The office of Uhuru Kenyatta, the facilitator of the East African Community-led peace process said the fourth round of the dialogue between the DRC Government and armed groups is set to begin in mid February. The inter Congolese dialogue will for the first time be held in eastern DRC.

🌍 Rwanda, Botswana Police forces sign cooperation pact
📌Rwanda National Police (RNP) and Botswana Police Service (BPS) signed a cooperation agreement at the RNP General Headquarters at Kacyiru in Kigali on Monday to formalize partnership in various areas of policing to combat transnational organized crimes. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dan Munyuza and the Acting Commissioner for Botswana Police Service.

🌍 South Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon lose UN voting rights over dues
📌 The U.N. chief said in a letter that South Sudan, Equatorial Guinea  and Gabon are in arrears on paying dues to the United Nations’ operating budget and are among six nations that have lost their voting rights in the 193-member General Assembly.

🌍 Stop spying on spouse’s phones – Zambian President Hichilema
📌Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema has urged his countrymen to stop checking on the phones of their spouses. His comments were part of a plea to try and curb divorce rates in the country.
“We marry for love, we don’t marry to go and check each other out, or to go and point a finger,” President  Hichilema is quoted by local outlets as saying when he hosted a local monarch.

🌍 WHO urges ‘immediate action’ after cough syrup deaths
📌The World Health Organization has called for ‘immediate and concerted action’  to protect children from contaminated medicines after a spate of child deaths linked to cough syrups last year in the Gambia.