The Ugandan Government suspends one of the main LGBTQ organizations in the country

Aug. 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Ugandan authorities have suspended the activity of one of the most prominent LGBTQ organizations in the country, Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) after citing a registration error as a reason in what those responsible for the group have denounced as a “clear witch hunt”.

Homosexual relations are illegal in Uganda, where people belonging to this community can be punished with life imprisonment for committing “unnatural crimes”. Official Police data shows that 194 people were charged with this crime between 2017 and 2020, including 25 who were later convicted.

“This is a clear witch hunt rooted in systematic homophobia, fueled by anti-gay and anti-gender movements,” SMUG director Frank Mugisha told the BBC.

The suspension was announced on Friday, when the authorities informed the organization that its name had not been correctly registered with the National Office of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), as they did last year in a controversial decision against dozens of groups of civil society.

In a statement, the NGO Office acknowledged that SMUG had tried to register with the authorities in 2012, but that the application had been rejected because the full name was considered “undesirable”.

President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in office since 1986, has made homophobic comments in the past, including in a 2016 CNN interview when he called homosexuals “disgusting.”