Kampala, April 20: Three more Ugandan athletes have disappeared in Australia after the conclusion of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Charles Bakkabulindi, minister of state for sports said on Thursday that the three did not board the plane to return home, Xinhua reported.

The three who disappeared include Regan Ssimbwa, Nasir Bashir and table tennis female player Halima Nambozo.

This brings the number to five Ugandans who disappeared during this sports event. Last week two weightlifters Irene Kasubo and Kalidi Batuusa disappeared.

Bakkabulindi said that this behaviour may make it difficult for countries to give Ugandan athletes visas to attend international sports events.

"We are also going to screen players more, so that we are sure athletes will not disappear when they travel to represent the country. We must become tough with this matter," the minister said.

Robert Jjagwe, Chairman of the Uganda Table Tennis Association said it is sad that one of their gifted female players had chosen to vanish.

Besides Uganda, athletes from Rwanda, Cameroon and Sierra Leone are reported to have vanished during the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Authorities in Australia said they will only start looking for the athletes who disappeared during the Games when their visas expire on May 15.

Uganda finished in 15th place after sending a team of 69 athletes and competed in 11 disciplines.

Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei won two gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m, while Stella Chesang bagged the women's 10,000m gold medal and Mercyline Chelangat bagged a bronze in the same race. 

Boxer Juma Miiro picked a bronze medal in the 46-49kg weight category.

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New Delhi: India launched “Operation Sindoor” early Wednesday morning, targeting nine terror launchpads in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). According to reports, 24 missile strikes were carried out in response to the recent terror attack in Pahalgam. The operation reportedly killed around 70 terrorists.

Soon after the strikes, a flood of videos and photos began circulating on social media and TV channels. However, many of these turned out to be false or misleading.

Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of Alt News, has been fact-checking these claims since early morning. He confirmed that many of the videos shared online were actually from other global conflicts, such as those involving Israel, Gaza, and Iran. Some videos were even taken from video games and falsely shared as real footage of the Indian attack.

Pakistan also claimed that it shot down two Indian aircraft. Zubair clarified that this claim is false and that only drones were downed, not manned aircraft.

News Channel Republic TV, aired videos claiming to show the strikes. Zubair revealed that the footage in question was both old and edited, and not a real-time video of the current incident. 

Several social media users have shared videos showing explosions in Gaza, falsely claiming they depict Wednesday’s Israeli attack. However, Zubair has traced the original sources of these clips and confirmed that they are unrelated to the recent Indian operation.

Zubair’s efforts to counter misinformation have been widely appreciated on social media. Some users went as far as suggesting he deserves the Bharat Ratna for his work. Others noted that the kind of fact-checking done by Alt News could cost the government up to ₹100 crore if done officially.