This archive report was first published on 19 October 2019.
On October 17, 2019, a meeting between Uganda and Rwanda was expected to take place in Kampala, following a first meeting in Kigali on September 16, 2019, aimed at easing tensions between the neighboring countries.
However, Rwandan officials stated that they had not been contacted by their Ugandan counterparts for the second bilateral meeting, which was scheduled to take place within 30 days of the first meeting.
The meetings were intended to fast-track the implementation of an agreement signed in August 2019 by both President Paul Kagame and President Yoweri Museveni in Angola, to end two-year-long hostilities between the neighbors.
Key on the agenda for the missed meeting was further discussions on the reopening of their common border for goods and people, which has been closed since late February 2019.
Business community and communities in both countries have suffered the effects of the impasse over the border closure, with Ugandan exporters desperate to access their Rwandan and Burundian markets, and Rwandan markets running out of stock of popular Ugandan products.
Ugandan officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated that the bilateral meeting 'is in the offing' and that Rwandan officials will be 'informed in due course,' but it remains unclear whether the situation will change any time soon.
