Uganda’s High Commissioner to the Republic of Rwanda Oliver Wonekha, and top security officials in the districts of Kabale and Rubanda have held a high level meeting to discuss how to cope with the closed border points.
The three hour meeting that happened on Friday at Cephas Inn Hotel Kabale was chaired by the Kabale Resident District Commissioner Darius Nandinda.
Nandinda while making his opening remarks urged members of the public to leave issues of the closed border points to the “Generals”, calling upon the business community to cope with the not so good situation which he said would come to the end in the near future.
Nadinda also cautioned journalists against exaggerating the current situation between the two countries.
“Journalists used to call me from Kampala asking me of the hearsay that Rwanda had deployed tight security at the border points. I urge you to leave issues of Generals to Generals” the RDC said.
He however admitted that border closure has affected standards of living of the people at the border points.
Meanwhile, after his remarks journalists from different media companies were ordered to leave the meeting, promising that they would later hold a presser with them which did not happen.
Immigration officials from Katuna and Mirama hills border points also attended the meeting. Officials from the internal security organization (ISO), Uganda peoples defense forces (UPDF) were also in attendance.
In February this year, Rwanda closed all its borders with Uganda, accusing Kampala of arresting and torturing innocent Rwandans who live or come to the country.
Earlier in March, Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda speaking at Kamukira health center in Kabale municipality promised Ugandans that government was holding diplomatic talks with Kigali to open the border points, but nothing has changed since then.
Border closure has impacted negatively on the two countries most especially on trade. For example, farmers in Maziba Sub County in Kabale district who used to sell their pineapple to Rwanda lost market.
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