Overview
Landlocked Uganda has transformed itself from a country with a troubled past to one of relative stability and prosperity.
Since its independence from Britain in 1962, the east African nation has seen several coups, followed by Idi Amin's brutal military dictatorship in the 1970s, followed by a five-year war that brought current President Yoweri Museveni to power in 1986.
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REPUBLIC OF UGANDA: FACTS
•Capital: Kampala
•Area: 241,038 sq km
•Population: 45.8 million
•Languages: English, Swahili
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LEADER
President: Yoweri Museveni
President Yoweri Museveni has ruled the country since 1986 when his National Resistance Movement seized power.
He was last re-elected in the January 2021 presidential elections, winning 58% of the vote while popstar-turned-politician Bobi Wine had 35%. The opposition alleged there was widespread fraud.
Mr Museveni has been credited with restoring relative stability and economic prosperity following years of civil war and repression under Milton Obote and Idi Amin and in the 1990s was praised as part of a new generation of African leaders.
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MEDIA
Uganda's constitution guarantees press freedom, but the media are "hindered by laws on fraudulent digital activity, anti-terrorism and public order", says the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) watchdog.Journalists face intimidation, including arrest and assault, especially if they criticise the president and his inner circle, says the Freedom House NGO.
However, social media are part of a "robust culture of independent journalism", Freedom House says. Uganda has a lively broadcasting scene, with more than 200 radio stations and around 30 TV networks
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TIMELINE
Some key dates in Uganda's history:
c. 1000BC - Bantu speaking farmers arrive in southern Uganda, while Nilotic speakers settle in the northeast.
c. 1000BC-500AD - Kitara Empire controls East Africa's great lakes region. At its peak, the empire, also known as the Empire of the Sun, Empire of the Moon, rules much of the Nile valley.
13th Century - Buganda unified under its first king Kato Kintu, the founder of Buganda's Kintu dynasty.
18th-19th Centuries - Buganda and its rival Bunyoro become the region's most powerful kingdoms.
1830s - Arab traders move into the region from the Indian Ocean.
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