China’s Ambassador to Uganda Tried (Again) to Settle the Entebbe Airport Seizure Controversy

The Chinese and Ugandan governments collaborated in what appears to be an effort to jointly refute last month’s Daily Monitor story that falsely claimed the Entebbe Airport would be seized by China as part of a debt default. Ambassador Zhang Lizhong led a donation ceremony on Friday at the airport to hand over $45,000 worth of PPE materials to Transport Minister Fred Byamukama, who also denounced the allegations that China was engaging in “debt trap” lending in Uganda. 

Interestingly, Byamukama seemed to endorse the Chinese take on this story that it was outsiders, specifically non-Africans, that are behind the Entebbe airport controversy. “Those who don’t wish African countries to grow well, they keep on making propaganda and formulating stories,” he said presumably alluding to Western countries. He failed to mention that the origin of this entire drama was a Ugandan media outlet that only quoted Ugandan sources.

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by Eric Olander

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