Rwanda agrees to re-open border with Uganda

Kigali, Rwanda | THE INDEPENDENT | Rwanda has finally agreed to re-open her border with Uganda after receiving assurance that the issues that led to its closure three years ago are being addressed.

A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda released last night incidacted the Gatuna border post will be reopened from January 31.

The statement stated that, “following the visit to Rwanda of Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Senior Presidential Advistor on Special Operations and Commander of Land Forces of the Uganda People’s Defence forces (U9PDF) on January 22 2022, the Government of Rwanda has taken note that there is a process to solves issues raised by Rwanda, as well as commitments made by the Government of Uganda to address remaining obstacles. In this regard and inline with the communique of the 4th Quadripartite Summit held at Gatuna/Katuna on February 21 2020, the government of Rwanda wishes to inform the public that the Gatuna border post between Rwanda and Uganda will re re-opened from 31 January 2022.”

After his visit last week, Muhoozi Kainerugaba had said that, “we held very cordial and in-depth discussions about how to improve our bilateral relations. I’m confident that under the leadership of our two Presidents we shall be able to quickly restore our historical good relations.”

This means a lot to People of both countries. Well done for this important step in restoring strong bilateral ties between the two countries. @KagutaMuseveni @PaulKagame @mkainerugaba pic.twitter.com/ovvJh4we2N

— Adonia Ayebare (@adoniaayebare) January 27, 2022

The visit comes days after Uganda’s Permanent Representative of Uganda to the United Nations Amb. Adonia Ayebare delivered a special message to Kigali in continued efforts to mend relations with Rwanda continued today.

It is now two years ago since the presidents of Rwanda Kagame and Uganda Museveni signed an agreement in Angola to ease tensions after the two leaders exchanged accusations of spying, political assassinations and meddling. Rwanda months earlier closed the border.

Since then, there has been slow progress on the actual return of normalcy especially the opening of the Gatuna border which the Kigali administration closed in February 2019.