The second meeting
between Uganda and Rwanda to address the closure of the Uganda- Rwanda
border at Gatuna early this year, has been called off.
According to the Uganda government spokesperson, Mr Ofwono Opondo, the meeting was called off at the request of Kigali.
“The
media is hereby informed that the Second meeting of the Adhoc
Commission on Luanda MoU btwn #Uganda and #Rwanda scheduled for November
18, 2019 in Kampala has been postponed at the request of Rwanda. A new
date will be communicated,” Mr Opondo tweeted on Thursday.
The
meeting, which would have been a follow-up to the Kigali meeting on
September 16, was supposed to take place after 30 days that is on
October 16, 2019.
Now that the
November date has also been cancelled, it leaves everything uncertain as
to when leaders of the two countries would meet.
Kigali said then that it was waiting for an invitation from Kampala which never came.
The second meeting was specifically expected to help resolve the border closure, which has been shut since February 2019.
Trade between Uganda and Rwanda has fallen sharply.
On
Saturday, two Uganda businessmen; Job Ebyarishaga and Bosco Tuhirwe
were killed inside Rwanda and the Kigali administration said they were
smuggling tobacco into its territory.
But
Kampala didn’t take the incident lightly. The government wrote a
protest letter this week against the killing of its people and asked for
a joint investigation into the said murders and that the perpetrators
are held accountable.
On Thursday,
before Mr Opondo’s communication, President Kagame spoke in Rwanda
sending veiled barbs to the country’s "enemies" saying they [Rwandans]
were “going to raise the cost on the part of anybody who wants to
destabilise our security. The cost is going to be very high".
“For
those who are involved, you'll have to come clean. You can't be here
benefiting from the peace and security that we have paid for in blood
and then do things that cause us problems. We will put you where you
belong,” he said.
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