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Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye is in intensive care at a hospital in Kampala, his wife and medical sources said on Thursday.
The 70-year-old has been in custody while facing treason charges over an alleged plot against President Yoweri Museveni.
Besigye collapsed during a court appearance on Wednesday after rejecting state-appointed lawyers and objecting to the refusal to allow his own legal representatives to appear for him.
His wife, Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said Besigye had been admitted to the intensive care unit at Mulago Hospital in Kampala and was unconscious and unresponsive.
“He is unconscious, unable to speak, and unresponsive even to a pain stimulus.”
A hospital spokeswoman, Gladys Baligonzaki Kajura, confirmed that Besigye was admitted on Wednesday evening and was receiving treatment in the intensive care unit, but did not provide details about his condition.
“He is at the intensive care unit. He was admitted last evening and his condition is being managed,” she added, without elaborating.
A medical source, speaking anonymously, said Besigye was in critical condition and had remained unresponsive after being taken to hospital.
Besigye, a former personal physician to Museveni, has been a leading opposition figure for more than 25 years and has faced repeated arrests and legal proceedings since entering politics.
He was abducted in neighbouring Kenya in 2024 and later returned to Uganda, where he was initially tried before a military tribunal. The case was subsequently transferred to a civilian court.
Before Besigye collapsed, one of his lawyers, former Kampala mayor Erias Lukwago, was arrested, while another, former Kenyan Justice Minister Martha Karua, was barred from entering Uganda.
The developments come as Uganda faces growing criticism over a crackdown on opposition politicians, lawyers and independent media.
Besigye has been hospitalised twice since his detention. He was briefly admitted in February 2025 after embarking on a hunger strike and was taken to hospital again earlier this year.
Byanyima has repeatedly criticised the conditions of her husband’s detention, describing them as inhumane and alleging that there was an attempt to kill him.
