President Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagame of Rwanda have signed an agreement in Angola’s capital Luanda, that could see an end to border closure at Katuna.
Both Museveni and Kagame flew to Angola today morning. The signing was witnessed by President João Lourenço of Angola, and President Felix Tshisekedi of DRC.
Kagame said after the signing that; “with an open border, you have goods and people. When you create a problem for people to move across the border from one side to another, then you have closed the border to people and goods.”
This comes seven months after Rwanda closed the Gatuna border. Kigali accused Uganda of supporting rebel groups that wanted to dispose the regime in Rwanda.
“I think it is not very difficult to address many of the problems we have had, it may take a bit of time to understand each other but I think we have come a long way,” Kagame said as tweeted by Rwanda Presidency.
“We are not going to be found wanting in not only respecting the communique but also our brothers who have brought us together to reach this understanding.”
He added that difficulties going on by trade not going on across the border, and problems when people can’t cross the border, when you have people who get arrested when they cross the border, it affects the movement of people, of goods and trade.
The closure of the border has seen trade between the two countries drop significantly, with Uganda’s export earnings going down to just $1m monthly from $16m before closure.