Kampala, Uganda: Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire has come out to accuse Tanzanian security operatives of rape and torture while in secret detention, days after she was found abandoned at the border between Uganda and Tanzania.
Atuhaire, who leads the Uganda-based Agora Centre for Research, told the BBC that she was blindfolded, stripped, and sexually assaulted by men in plain clothes during her detention in Tanzania, where she had traveled alongside prominent Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi to show solidarity with opposition leader Tundu Lissu.
“The pain was too much,” Atuhaire told the BBC, showing a scar from where she said she had been handcuffed. “I was screaming so hard they had to cover my mouth.”
She further claimed that Mwangi was also tortured and threatened with forced circumcision. The two were held incommunicado after being denied access to the court hearing they had sought to attend.
Mwangi later recounted on social media: “We had been tortured, and we were told to strip naked and to go bathe. We couldn’t walk and were told to crawl and go wash off the blood.”
Atuhaire was discovered at the border on Thursday night, four days after her arrest, according to Agora Centre. Mwangi was similarly found abandoned on a roadside near the Kenyan border.
Tanzanian authorities were yet to comment on the allegations by Saturday evening when this story was compiled, but regional human rights organizations are demanding an independent investigation into the activists’ ordeal.
Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had earlier accused Tanzania of denying consular access to Mwangi during his detention, while Uganda’s High Commissioner to Tanzania, Fred Mwesigye, confirmed Atuhaire had “safely returned home” and was “warmly received by her family.”
The incident follows remarks by Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Monday, warning that activists from neighboring countries would not be allowed to “meddle” in internal affairs or cause “chaos.”
Both Atuhaire and Mwangi claim they were tortured under orders from individuals linked to state security.
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