KAMPALA, July 22: Idi Amin’s wife and daughter flew to Saudi Arabia this week to visit the dying former dictator of Uganda, government officials in Kampala said on Tuesday.

“Amin’s wife and daughter left yesterday (Monday) aboard Ethiopian Airlines and they are already in Jeddah,” Minister for the Presidency Kirunda Kivejinja, who has been handling the link between Amin’s family and the government, said.

The government “facilitated” the trip, he added, without elaborating.

Hospital sources at King Faisal Specialist Hospital, one of Saudi Arabia’s top medical centres, earlier on Tuesday said the septuagenarian Amin was still in a critical condition and on a life-support machine.

“He is still alive. His condition however has not improved and he remains in a coma and on a life-support machine in the intensive care unit,” a medical source at the hospital said.

Hospital officials refused to specify the exact cause of Idi Amin’s illness or give further details about his condition.—AFP