Rwanda announced on Friday January 28 the reopening on January 31 of the main border post with Uganda, closed since February 2019, formalizing a thaw in relations between the two East African neighbors.
This announcement comes less than a week after the visit of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s son, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, to Kigali where he and Rwandan President Paul Kagame showed their desire to “restore” bilateral relations.
“After General Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s visit to Rwanda (…) on January 22, the government of Rwanda took note that there is a process to resolve the issues raised by Rwanda, as well as commitments from the government of Uganda to remove the remaining obstacles”says the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release published early Friday morning, January 28.
” In this regard (…)the government wishes to inform the public that the Gatuna border post between Rwanda and Uganda will be reopened from January 31”adds the ministry.
No official Ugandan comment
“The Government of Rwanda remains committed to the ongoing efforts to resolve the outstanding issues between Rwanda and Uganda and believes that today’s announcement will positively contribute to the rapid normalization of relations between the two countries”concludes the text.
No official comment was immediately available on the Ugandan side, but General Muhoozi and the Ugandan government notably relayed the Rwandan press release on their official Twitter accounts.
Rwanda had abruptly closed the Gatuna border post – called Katuna in Uganda – in February 2019, cutting off an important land trade route, amid growing tensions between the two countries.
Kigali accused Uganda of kidnapping its nationals and supporting rebels seeking to overthrow Mr Kagame. Kampala for its part accused Rwanda of spying and killing two men during an incursion into its territory in May 2019, which Kigali disputed.
Chief intelligence officer sacked
Shortly after the meeting between General Muhoozi and Paul Kagame, Yoweri Museveni announced on Wednesday the replacement of the powerful head of military intelligence, Abel Kandiho, in office since 2017, officially as part of a “routine transfer and [d’une] reassignment »according to a Ugandan government spokesman.
In recent years, Rwandan officials had accused Mr. Kandiho of collaborating with dissidents to kidnap Rwandan citizens in Uganda. He was also under US sanctions for his alleged involvement and that of his services in serious human rights abuses.
Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni were close allies during the 1980s and 1990s, in the conquest of power in their respective countries, before becoming fierce rivals.
After the closure of the Gatuna border post, talks between the two leaders were organized under the aegis of the Angolan heads of state Joao Lourenço and Congolese Félix Tshisekedi. The fourth and last meeting took place in February 2020 in Gatuna. No meeting between the two leaders has been held since, in particular due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Relations were also soured in 2021 by the publication of the investigation into the Israeli spyware Pegasus, which claimed that Rwanda had used this software to hack into the phones of the Ugandan Prime Minister between 2014 and 2021, Ruhakana Rugunda, and of the Ugandan Minister of Foreign Affairs in office since 2015, Sam Kutesa. Rwanda had denounced a “smear campaign”.
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