Rwandan President Paul Kagame and the Presidents of Angola and DR Congo and Uganda on Friday held talks at Gatuna border crossing between Uganda and Rwanda where the fourth Quadripartite Heads of State Summit is taking place, APA reported here.
The talks build on a memorandum of understanding that was signed in Angola in August last year to end the dispute that prompted both countries to accuse the other of spying, political assassinations and meddling. The tensions had also prompted Rwanda to close the border with its northern neighbor.
Ahead of the Quadripartite meeting, Ugandan officials confirmed they have withdrawn Ugandan Passport N° A000199979 that was issued by the Ugandan Government to Charlotte Mukankusi, Commissioner in charge of Diplomacy in the RNC, which is a Rwandan dissident group.
Frosty relations between the two countries became more pronounced in February 2019, when Rwanda issued a travel advisory strongly warning its citizens against travelling to Uganda.
Rwandan also accuses Uganda of offering succour to two foreign-based Rwanda rebel groups – Rwanda National Congress (RNC) and Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
The RNC is a rebel group led by some of Rwanda’s most prominent dissidents including South africa-based renegade officer of the Rwandan army Kayumba Nyamwasa.
The FDLR is a rebel group composed in part of former Rwandan soldiers and Hutu militias who fled into the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after massacring more than one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
There are more than 100 “innocent” Rwandans incarcerated in Uganda, according to Rwandan officials.
In the meanwhile, 22 Rwandans were released recently by a Ugandan military court after the prosecution indicated it had lost interest in the case, a move Rwanda welcomed as “a good step” towards normalizing relations.
CU/abj/APA