HRF condemns Ugandan officials’ freezing of the bank accounts of many of the country’s leading human rights NGOs, which have been suspended since January. HRF calls for the lifting of these arbitrary measures, which are a troubling new twist in Yoweri Museveni’s regime’s longstanding war on civic groups campaigning for public accountability.

Uganda’s Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) confirmed reports this week that it has frozen both institutional and personal bank accounts linked to a number of prominent NGOs for the purpose of investigating funding received from foreign donors.

The affected NGOs say that they were neither notified nor given an explanation by the FIA or their financial institutions. They include Chapter Four Uganda, the African Institute for Investigative Journalism, the Centre for Constitutional Governance, the Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies, and Agora Centre for Research, co-founded by 2023 Oslo Freedom Forum speaker Agather Atuhaire.

This week, the Uganda Law Society filed a lawsuit in the regional East African Court of Justice challenging the Ugandan regime’s indefinite suspension of at least ten leading civic groups — including those with frozen bank accounts — on vague accusations of engaging in activities “prejudicial to the security and laws of Uganda.” The suspensions began on Jan. 9, less than a week ahead of Uganda’s contentious Jan. 15 general elections.