Rwanda Accused For Imposing Trade Embargo On Uganda

On Wednesday, Uganda barred all its exports of goods to Rwanda after being accused of imposing a trade embargo. In the last month, the two countries have traded barbs and thus has paved way for strained relations and have posed risks for the Great Lake Region’s commerce and security at large. Towards end February, Rwanda is said to have blocked Ugandan cargo trucks from accessing Katuna which is the busiest border crossing. The authorities from Rwanda claimed that there was ongoing construction going on and advised the Ugandan trucks to use an alternative route that was 100km away.

Sam Kutesa the Foreign Minister for Kampala on Wednesday said that all goods from Uganda were at the moment being barred from entering Rwanda and that only goods from Kenya were being granted access. “This is an embargo on bilateral trade with Uganda,” he said in a statement.

Rwanda is upset about the reports making rounds about Uganda offering support to rebel groups opposing President Paul Kagame and his government, including Rwanda National Congress (RNC) and the FDLR. Rwanda which is a landlocked country transports a tangible amount of its imports through a trade route that uses Uganda from Kenya’s port in Mombasa. The same route also serves as a pipeline for Kenya’s exports and facilitates the supply of merchandise to Burundi and some parts of Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Rwanda National Congress is under the leadership of some of Rwanda’s prominent dissidents including Kayumba Nyamwasa who is based in South Africa. According to them RNC is a political party and not a rebel group. The FDLR on the other hand is a rebel group that comprises of partly Rwandese soldiers and Hutu militia. The soldiers and militias fled into Democratic Republic of Congo after massacring around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.