Incidents of torture by Uganda's police continue to be reported despite the introduction of a 2012 law banning the practice, the country's Human Rights Commission said Thursday.

A report from the state-funded body, released to coincide with the United Nations' International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, said those affected were also stuck in a legal backlog and awaiting compensation, sometimes for years.

The United States Thursday slapped sanctions on Uganda -- cancelling a military air exercise, imposing visa bans and freezing some aid -- amid deep U.S. anger at "vile" Ugandan anti-gay laws.

The United States on Thursday slapped sanctions on Uganda including canceling a military air exercise, visa bans and freezing some aid after Ugandan leaders brought in tough anti-gay laws.

The new legislation signed into law in February "runs counter to universal human rights and complicates our bilateral relationship," the White House said, as it announced the new steps.

Uganda's government on Wednesday banned one of the country's main television stations from covering presidential events after it aired images which it said showed President Yoweri Museveni having a snooze in parliament.

"The president has habits, he meditates and they know it, and still they go out and say he was sleeping," government media center manager Dennis Katungi told Agence France Presse.

The government of Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, already one of Africa's longest-serving leaders, on Tuesday told the country's opposition that it would have to wait until 2056 before it stood any chance of winning an election.

Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) "is in for a long journey with Ugandans" under 69-year-old Museveni, who has led the impoverished east African nation since 1986.

Fighting is likely to continue in South Sudan without the deployment of an east African regional force to pressure both sides to respect a ceasefire, Uganda's army chief said Tuesday.

Uganda already has troops in South Sudan fighting alongside government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir against rebel leader Riek Machar, but the country's army chief said a larger regional force was needed to halt the five-month-old civil war.

A special U.N. military force to protect aid workers deployed for the first time in the war-ravaged Somali capital Sunday, amid a wave of attacks blamed on al-Qaida-linked Shebab insurgents.

The 400-strong "defensive" guard force of Ugandan troops, based at the heavily fortified Mogadishu airport, is "mandated to protect U.N. staff and installations" in the capital.

Uganda's tough new anti-gay law has sparked a "surge in human rights violations", including arrest, job loss, eviction, and the killing of at least one transgender person, campaign groups said Thursday.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people have "faced a notable increase in arbitrary arrests, police abuse and extortion, loss of employment, evictions and homelessness, and scores have fled the country," Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International said in joint report.

Churches in the Ugandan capital face a "specific terrorist threat", the U.S. embassy has warned, amid a wave of attacks in east Africa blamed on Islamist insurgents.

"The threat information indicates a group of attackers may be preparing to strike places of worship in Kampala, particularly churches, including some that may be frequented by expatriates, in May or June," the embassy warned in a statement to U.S. citizens Tuesday.

Defeated Democratic Republic of Congo rebels who fled to Uganda have signed amnesty papers vowing not to fight again, a leader of the group said Tuesday, marking a key step in peace efforts.

"It's a commitment not to take up arms again against the republic," the political head of the M23 rebel group Bertrand Bisimwa told AFP.