Germany rejects accusations towards ambassador after Uganda’s military cuts ties

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NAIROBI (Reuters) -Uganda’s military has severed all military cooperation with Germany after it accused Berlin’s ambassador to Kampala of involvement in “subversive activities” in the East African country, its spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Germany’s foreign ministry said at a press conference in Berlin on Monday that the accusations were “absurd and without any merit and we reject them in the strongest terms”.

The spokesperson declined to comment further on the nature of the accusations.

The Uganda People’s Defence Forces spokesperson, Chris Magezi, also gave no further details in the statement he posted on X on Sunday, apart from saying the decision was in response to “credible intelligence reports”.

In a separate post on the platform on Sunday, Uganda’s military chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba said the military was having problems with Ambassador Mathias Schauer “as a person”.

“It has to do with him as a person. He is wholly unqualified to be in Uganda. It has nothing to do with the great German people,” Kainerugaba said.

The spokesperson for Uganda’s ministry of foreign affairs could not be reached for comment.

Magezi gave no details of any existing military cooperation between Uganda and Germany. The German spokesperson said there was no formalised military cooperation between the two countries.

Uganda has its troops in the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, which is partly funded by the European Union, of which Germany is a member.

Kainerugaba, the son of President Yoweri Museveni and widely seen as heir apparent, is known for his inflammatory posts on social media which have included threats to Western diplomats in Kampala.

(Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Editing by George Obulutsa, Michael Perry and Alison Williams)