False and Misleading: The U.S. has not imposed any sanctions on Uganda

A video is circulating on TikTok, a  predominantly video-sharing app claiming that the superpower nation, the United States of America (USA), has imposed three sanctions on Uganda, but this is false.

The narrator in the video, speaking in Luganda, a local dialect commonly spoken in central Uganda, claims that Uganda has been given three sanctions, not just one. He says these sanctions relate to human rights violations and actions that disrupt peace. He briefly apologises to viewers for previously misleading them and says he will explain the three sanctions and how they could affect the country.

He goes on to argue that the sanctions imposed on Rwanda’s army also affect Uganda because issues in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) involve the wider Great Lakes region. 

According to him, the same actors accused of human rights violations are responsible for destabilising peace in the region. He suggests that whatever affects Rwanda also affects Uganda, claiming that when the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) is sanctioned, it indirectly affects the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF). He further alleges that when Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame is targeted, Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni ultimately benefits, insisting that this point should not even be debated.

The narrator then claims that two sanctions were directed at the RDF and the UPDF, stating that any assistance given to the Rwandan army will now also attract sanctions. He describes himself as someone who educates people through his platform, though he complains that the group he helps (the government) does not seem concerned, even though his content also benefits them.

Towards the end of the video, he distances himself from commentators such as Full Figure and Kasuku, saying his platform focuses on discussing policy on behalf of supporters of Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu. He concludes by urging the government to financially support his platform by buying them mobile data instead of the others. 

 A sanction is an official penalty or restrictive measure imposed by a government, organisation, or court to enforce laws, punish behaviour, or pressure a country into compliance.

Facts

Official records from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Announcements’ X account, one of the places they announce sanctions, showed no evidence that Uganda as a country has been sanctioned three times.

Well, as the U.S. has ever imposed sanctions here, here, here, here and here, these have been targeted at specific Ugandan individuals, including parliamentary and security officials, due to concerns over corruption and human rights abuses, for instance, in May 2024 and 2025. The sanctions were placed on a high ranking government officials like the Speaker Anita Among and her Husband Moses Magogo, Agnes Nandutu, among others, over alleged misconduct.

The TikTok claim appears to confuse these individual sanctions with broader national sanctions or exaggerate the number of measures taken. No official U.S. government source or credible media outlet has verified the claim that Uganda itself has been sanctioned three times.

Evidence

We used the Info Verifier tool, and the results indicated that the United States has recently issued targeted sanctions on Ugandan officials due to corruption and human rights abuses, and cited examples of published stories by AP News and Voice of America. However, on reading through the stories, we learnt that these were sanctions from 2024 and not recent ones (2026) against Individuals and not the country as alleged in the TikTok.

We also checked the U.S. Department of the Treasury office’s X official account, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) X account, and there was no communication about sanctions against Uganda, but there were sanctions against individuals from Korea, against Iranian individuals, etc.
There have been calls by the two-time presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, for targeted sanctions against the Commander of the Defence Forces, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba and his father, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, as reported here, here, and here. However, the U.S has threatened to issue sanctions against Gen. Muhoozi after making a careless tweet.

“Commander Muhoozi Kainerugaba has crossed a red line, and now the U.S. must re-evaluate its security partnership, which includes sanctions and military cooperation with Uganda,” US Senator Risch posted in response to a series of tweets from Muhoozi alleging a plot by the US Embassy in Uganda to aid the escape of presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine from the country. Muhoozi deleted the tweets amid the backlash,” reads the second paragraph of the Independent Magazine

The TikToker mentions that Rwanda was sanctioned,and this is true; however, the sanctions do not equate to Uganda being sanctioned as well, as claimed in the video. Four officials were sanctioned in Rwanda.

“Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF)—the military of Rwanda—and four of its senior officials.  The RDF is actively supporting, training, and fighting alongside the March 23 Movement (M23), a U.S.- and United Nations (UN)-sanctioned armed group responsible for human rights abuses and a mass displacement crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The RDF has supported M23 as it seized territory in eastern DRC, including provincial capitals Goma and Bukavu, along with strategic mining sites in eastern DRC. M23’s offensives would not have been possible without the active support and complicity of the RDF and key senior officials,” reads the first paragraph of the article.

Throughout the article, there is no mention of Uganda or its army.

We also performed a Google reverse image search on the left image of the video, and showed us results of media reports confirming that Rwanda’s top officials had been sanctioned as reported here, here, here, and here.

RDF same as UPDF

He also claims that the RDF, which is Rwanda’s army, is the same as the UPDF, which is Uganda’s army, and this is not true. Those are two different armies of two different countries.

Our curiosity led us into doing  an reverse image search of the man speaking in the video to find out his identity. Results showed a Facebook and TikTok account in the name of Shama. An anlysis of the accounts reveals that the creator shares pro-NUP content and government-critical content, and has got plenty of contradictions.

Another search on the picture on the right of the video did not pick much details as it was too blurred. The results confirmed that the document was a public statement from the U.S government on foreign policy.

Verdict

False and Misleading: The U.S. has not imposed any sanctions on Uganda recently. And the connection between rwanda’s suntions to Uganda is loose and unverified.  

This fact-check was produced by NAMAJJA ELIZABETH with support from the Debunk Media Initiative and BBC Media Action.