For months, Uganda’s finest young basketball talents poured their sweat onto the courts. The atmosphere was building toward a historic milestone, the brand-new indoor arena at Hoima City Stadium was set to host its first-ever international tournament, welcoming the region for the 2026 FIBA U18 AfroBasket Zone V Qualifiers.
Instead, the dreams of a basketball-hungry community were shattered overnight.
In a sudden and devastating blow to the local sports fraternity, FIBA Africa has officially withdrawn Uganda’s hosting rights. Growing health concerns stemming from a recent Ebola outbreak in the country.
The Federation of Uganda Basketball Associations (FUBA) broke the grim news to fans, partners, and stakeholders in an official statement, confirming that the high-stakes tournament has been reassigned to Egypt.
Compounding the logistical nightmare, the tournament dates have also been brought forward; originally scheduled for June 14–20 in Hoima, the qualifiers will now take place from June 10–15 in North Africa.
The sudden shift has thrown Ugandan basketball into absolute chaos, forcing local organisers to scrap months of meticulous planning and preparation. However, the fallout affects the country’s two junior national teams in vastly different ways.
For the U18 Junior Gazelles (the girls’ team), the loss of the tournament is a blow to preparation rather than survival. Thanks to their impressive semifinal run at the 2024 continental tournament in South Africa, the girls have already securely booked their ticket to the main FIBA U18 African Championship in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
The Zone V qualifiers were merely supposed to be a golden opportunity to build team chemistry and fine-tune their plays on home soil.
For the U18 Junior Silverbacks (the boys’ team), the news is an absolute catastrophe. Unlike the girls, the boys had not yet qualified for the continental masterpiece. They desperately needed a strong showing in the qualifiers to advance. With a passionate home crowd behind them in Hoima, their chances looked incredibly bright.
Speaking on the sudden turn of events, the FUBA President offered a sobering reality check regarding the boys’ team.
“The boys will not travel due to logistical challenges,” he admitted.
The financial and operational hurdle is too high. Because the hosting rights were stripped with virtually no notice and the tournament itself was pulled forward by a full week, FUBA has been left with an empty treasury and an impossible timeline.
Securing emergency funds for an entire delegation’s flights, accommodations, and visas to Egypt at a moment’s notice is a daunting task.
Furthermore, the federation is facing a dizzying ripple effect: international travel plans for overseas-based Ugandan players must be rerouted, final training camps have been upended, and domestic National Basketball League (NBL) fixtures must be drastically rescheduled.
As it stands, neither the boys’ nor the girls’ teams will be boarding a flight to Egypt. While the girls can find solace in knowing their spot in Abidjan is safe, the boys are left to watch their hard work evaporate due to circumstances entirely beyond their control.
An empty arena in Hoima stands as a quiet reminder of what could have been, leaving Ugandan basketball fans left to wonder how a tournament that felt so close could vanish so quickly.
