{"id":110217,"date":"2025-09-22T17:12:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T17:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/winnie-byanyima-demands-accountability-for-missing-activists"},"modified":"2025-09-22T17:26:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T17:26:13","slug":"winnie-byanyima-demands-accountability-for-missing-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/winnie-byanyima-demands-accountability-for-missing-activists","title":{"rendered":"Winnie Byanyima Demands Accountability for Missing Activists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Uganda. <\/strong><\/span><b>The Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV\/AIDS (UNAIDS), Winnie Byanyima, has publicly called on the Ugandan government to provide answers regarding the whereabouts of opposition activist Sam Mugumya, who has been missing for over three weeks.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Mugumya, a long-time aide to veteran opposition leader Kizza Besigye, disappeared under suspicious circumstances from a motel in Nyamitanga Division, Mbarara City. His family and colleagues fear that he may have been abducted by security operatives.<\/p>\n<p>Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Byanyima described Mugumya as \u201ca son\u201d to her family and praised his dedicated volunteer work on Besigye\u2019s political campaigns. She urged the government to either produce Mugumya in court or release him, emphasizing the family\u2019s right to know his fate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSam Mugumya is my son. He is Besigye\u2019s son. We motivated him, mentored him, and he worked as a volunteer on Besigye\u2019s campaigns,\u201d Byanyima wrote. \u201cI join his parents to demand that the government produces him in court or release him. If he is dead, give us his body. We must honour and bury our beloved Sam. This is our right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her statements come amid rising political tensions in Uganda, marked by a spate of arrests of National Unity Platform (NUP) members and allegations from opposition parties of abductions and arbitrary detentions by security forces.<\/p>\n<p>Both the Uganda Police Force and the Uganda People\u2019s Defence Forces (UPDF) have denied any knowledge of Mugumya\u2019s detention or current location.<\/p>\n<p>Mugumya, a prominent opposition figure known for his outspoken criticism of authoritarianism, previously spent five years in detention in the Democratic Republic of Congo on charges of subversion before his repatriation in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Byanyima, who is also Besigye\u2019s wife, expressed deep concern over the continued silence from the authorities, describing it as unlawful and deeply distressing for Mugumya\u2019s family and supporters.<\/p>\n<p>She called on Ugandans and the international community to rally behind the campaign for Mugumya\u2019s release using the hashtag #FreeSamMugumya, underscoring the urgent need for transparency and justice.<\/p>\n<p>The case has intensified concerns about enforced disappearances and the security of political activists in Uganda.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Uganda<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Uganda. The Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV\/AIDS (UNAIDS), Winnie Byanyima, has publicly called on the Ugandan government to provide answers regarding the whereabouts of opposition activist Sam Mugumya, who has been missing for over three weeks. Mugumya, a long-time aide to veteran opposition leader Kizza Besigye, disappeared under [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":110216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[234],"class_list":["post-110217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Winnie Byanyima Demands Accountability for Missing Activists - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV\/AIDS (UNAIDS), Winnie Byanyima, has publicly call ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/winnie-byanyima-demands-accountability-for-missing-activists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Winnie Byanyima Demands Accountability for Missing Activists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV\/AIDS (UNAIDS), Winnie Byanyima, has publicly call ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/winnie-byanyima-demands-accountability-for-missing-activists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-22T17:12:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-22T17:26:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2025\/09\/sm_1758549347.415119.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/winnie-byanyima-demands-accountability-for-missing-activists#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/winnie-byanyima-demands-accountability-for-missing-activists\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Winnie Byanyima Demands Accountability for Missing Activists\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-22T17:12:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-22T17:26:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/winnie-byanyima-demands-accountability-for-missing-activists\"},\"wordCount\":371,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/winnie-byanyima-demands-accountability-for-missing-activists#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2025\/09\/sm_1758549347.415119.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/winnie-byanyima-demands-accountability-for-missing-activists#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/winnie-byanyima-demands-accountability-for-missing-activists\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/winnie-byanyima-demands-accountability-for-missing-activists\",\"name\":\"Winnie Byanyima Demands Accountability for Missing Activists - 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