KAMPALA: The full reopening of he land borders between Uganda and Rwanda will happen next week, Rwandan President Gen Paul Kagame has announced Rwandan President Paul Kagame has announced.
The move inspired by a cabinet resolution which was arrived at in a cabinet meeting which was chaired by the president on Friday March 4th.
“Land borders shall reopen starting Monday March 7th but people must be subject to random Covid-19 testing by the Ministry of Health upon entry,” reads the meeting communique issued by the Prime Minister’s Office last night.
Earlier in January this year, President Paul Kagame agreed to reopen Rwanda’s border with Uganda at Katuna, which had remained closed since early 2019, following a clash between the two nations.
This followed a meeting between Kagame and Uganda’s Land Forces Commander and First Son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, reports Chimp Reports.
Chimp Reports adds that Days later, the border was reopened for cargo crossing, while passenger crossing was pushed to a later date.
This morning, Muhoozi praised the Rwandan leader following the cabinet resolution announcement.
“As of Monday 7th March my uncle His Excellency President Kagame has permitted greater movement of people across our borders! I thank him very much for re-uniting our people. I also thank him for being a great hero,” he tweeted
The reopening confirms a recent analysis from our TOP INTELLIGENCE section.
We reproduce the analysis here below:
Following an exclusive interview with this new website a few days ago, the Commander of the Land Forces of the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF), Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba is returning to Kigali Rwanda at the invitation of President Paul Kagame.
“After a long discussion with my uncle, President Kagame, this morning we have agreed that I return to Kigali in the coming days to sort out all outstanding issues between Uganda and Rwanda,” Gen Muhoozi wrote in this tweet a few minutes back.
During the interview with this websites’ Advising Editor, Arinaitwe Rugyendo, Gen Muhoozi, who is also the Senior Presidential Advisor in charge of Special Operations, revealed that discussions were underway to have the Rwandan army join forces with Uganda and Congolese armies to flush out negative enemies from the DRC.
Here’s a snapshot of a section of the interview:
RUGYENDO: Ok. How strong is ADF to warrant this show of force that we witnessed on November 30th?
GEN MUHOOZI: Let me give you some small background. Following that defeat in 2007, the ADF completely abandoned the idea of a military invasion of Uganda. Instead, they changed their strategy and started concentrating on building their strength inside the DRC. They started seriously attacking our brothers in FARDC (the Congolese military). This is how they built their strength to about 2,000 fighters after 2007. But we have already reduced this number to about 1,000.
RUGYENDO: Where is this 1000 now?
GEN MUHOOZI: Some of them are hiding in the south of Busunga/Nobility border post. Around River Lume and Kikingi. This is why, together with FARDC, we have attacked the largest group nearby River Lume as part of the opening actions of Phase II. Others are running to the West! We also hear they want to run towards Kisangani. But we shall get them. Their days are numbered. We also hear that some have linked up with FDLR (a Rwandan rebel group opposed to Kigali) in the Samboka jungle. That’s one of the reasons our brothers from Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) want to join this operation so that we can deal with both ADF and FDLR.
RUGYENDO: Wait a minute. Did you just say the Rwandan forces are joining this operation?
GEN MUHOOZI: Yes, and I think it’s a good idea for FARDC, UPDF and RDF to pursue these negative forces west of the Komanda-Eringeti Road, and take them out once and for all so that the peoples of the three countries can live peacefully, work and trade together.
One of the stingiest issues that remains outstanding between the two countries was Kigali’s accusation that the Ugandan intellebe are harbouring elements from the Rwanda National Congress (RNC), an opposition group that has vowed to overthrow Kagame.
The group which is headed by Kagame’s former comrade-in-arms, Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa, was recently warned by Muhozi against using the Ugandan territory to conduct ant –Kigali activities.
This visit will be the second, following the one last month in which Muhoozi and President Kagame thrashed out a few issues that saw Uganda releasing some 58 Rwandan detainees and Rwanda releasing a Ugandan Special Forces soldier and partially opening the common border at Katuna to only cargo trucks.
TOP INTELLIGENCE has picked a signal the visit will enlist full opening of the border and formal pronouncements between the two countries.