Rwanda Re-Opens Border With Uganda But Grievances Remain

Rwanda has re-opened a border crossing with Uganda that had closed three years ago when the government accused Kampala of harassing its nationals and supporting dissidents bent on removing the government in Kigali.

In turn the government of President Yoweri Museveni accused Rwanda of conducting illegal espionage in Uganda, which suffered a huge drop in exports with the border closed.

Officials from both side hailed the reopening, allowing a resumption of trade and some people to move back and forth.

The comments of a Rwanda government spokesman to Rwandan television on Sunday signal the animosity still lingers.

Deputy government spokesman Alain Mukuralinda the reopening of the border does not mean that cases of violence of Rwandan nationals are over.

“It does not mean that cases of beatings, torture and deportations of Rwandan nationals are over.

“It does not mean that the people, based in Uganda, who want to destabilise Rwanda have stopped, we hope it is a good move towards stopping all that,” he said.

The border closure had choked off commerce on a major regional transport artery that funnels goods from the Indian Ocean seaport of Mombasa in Kenya through Uganda to Rwanda, Burundi and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

In the last two decades Uganda’s annual exports to Rwanda rose gradually to above $200 million but suddenly plunged sharply after the border closure in 2019.

In 2020, at the peak of the hostilities during the closure, Uganda’s exports to Rwanda were under $2 million.