Rwandan President Paul Kagame has met his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni in the Angolan capital Luanda where they signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at smoothening relations, official sources confirmed in Kigali on Wednesday.
In a statement issued at the end of Wednesday’s meeting which was also witnessed by Angolan leader João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço , DR Congo’s president Felix Tshisekedi , and Congo Brazzaville’s Denis Sassou Nguesso, the summit said it “welcomed the political will of Rwanda and Uganda to continue dialogue with a view to finding a solution to existing problems.”
In addition, the two leaders also agreed to refrain from actions conducive to destabilization or subversion in the territory of the other party and neighboring countries.
The move aims at eliminating all factors that may create such perception, as well as that of acts such as the financing, training and infiltration of destabilizing forces, the statement said.
In addition Uganda and Rwanda also agreed to protect and respect the rights and freedoms of the nationals of the other party residing or transiting in their national territories, in accordance with the law of the respective countries.
According to the same Memorandum of Understanding, it was also directed to resume as soon as possible the cross-border activities between both countries, including the movement of persons and goods for the development and improvement of their populations.
In May this year, authorities in Kigali advised Rwandans against travelling to Uganda over safety concerns.
In addition Kigali has been levelling accusation that Uganda had arrested over 40 Rwandans, and deported or denied entry to more than 800 others since January 2018.
Kigali also accused Kampala of being complicit in acts designed to deestabilise Rwanda through further two armed militias whose leaders were recentlly arrested and deported from DR Congo.
In December last year, a report by UN Group of Experts named Uganda as one of the sources of recruits for a Rwanda rebel group based in eastern DR Congo that calls itself P5 (created by five groups opposed to the Rwandan government, including RNC of wanted Rwandan dissident Kayumba Nyamwasa, and FDLR, an outfit that includes key architects of the 1994 genocide).
The two countries were once allies, pitching for the same side in the DRC war that led to the fall of longtime ruler Mobutu Sese Seko and in the subsequent rebel effort to topple his late successor, Laurent Kabila.
Kigali and Kampala fell out last year after a series of clashes in the north-eastern DRC city of Kisangani, which both sides accused the other of starting.
CU/as/APA