Idi Amin in critical condition

Uganda’s former dictator Idi Amin is battling for his life in a hospital in Saudi Arabia after having slipped into coma.

Idi Amin is feared and loathed in Uganda

Saudi medical sources said the ex-Ugandan ruler, accused of killing thousands during his terror-filled reign, was in a critical state and could die any moment.

“He is now in a vegetative state and could die at any time,” a source at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah said.

Said to be suffering from hypertension, Idi Amin’s went into a coma on Saturday.  Hospital authorities are understood to have informed his family that he might not survive.

A former boxing champion, the portly Idi Amin ruled Uganda between 1971 and 1979.  His reign is best remembered for unmitigated brutality, during which thousands were either killed or maimed.

On being ultimately driven out of power by Tanzanian forces and Ugandan exiles, he slipped out of the country and surfaced in Libya.  He thereafter got asylum in Saudi Arabia, where he has been living for the last 10 years.

‘He is now in a vegetative state and could die at any time.’

–Saudi hospital source

With the Ugandan government threatening to prosecute him for his crimes, he never returned to Uganda.

He never stood trial, though human rights organizations worldwide campaigned for his prosecution.

Idi Amin lived a quiet life in Jeddah with his four wives and was often spotted shopping.

Though he lived in exile, several of his children lived and worked in Uganda. Idi Amin also had his favorite Ugandan food flown in from Kampala once every week.

Source: News Agencies