ET PETER BUSOMOKE
General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, in May 2016 in Kampala
General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, traveled to Rwanda on Saturday, where he met President Paul Kagame, in an official visit which marks a warming of relations between the two countries following several years of tensions .
The border between the two East African neighbors has notably been closed for almost three years.
Arrived Saturday morning in Kigali, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, commander of the Ugandan army and considered by many as the probable successor of his father, was received in the followingnoon by Paul Kagame.
The two men “discussed relations between Rwanda and Uganda”, the Rwandan presidency said in a tweet accompanied by photos showing them together, the general dressed in a civilian costume.
Ugandan official social networks also relayed photos of the meeting. “For a prosperous, competitive, secure, stable and politically united East Africa,” read the government’s Twitter account.
In the morning, a source close to the general told AFP that “the problems between the two countries (were) on the agenda” during this one-day visit, conducted “as a senior presidential adviser special operations officer.
This visit marks a warming in relations between the two countries, which have been strained for several years.
Prior to this visit, the Rwandan president had received on Monday the Ugandan permanent representative to the UN, who had delivered “a message from Museveni”, according to the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Last Sunday, Muhoozi Kainerugaba tweeted two photos of Paul Kagame, writing: “This is my uncle, Paul Kagame. Those who fight him are fighting my family. They should all be careful.”
Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni were close allies during the 1980s and 1990s, in the conquest of power in their respective countries, before becoming fierce rivals.
Last episode of tension between the two countries: in February 2019, Rwanda had abruptly closed its border with its neighbor, cutting off an important land trade route.
Kigali accused Uganda of kidnapping its nationals and supporting rebels seeking to overthrow Mr Kagame.
Kampala for its part accused Rwanda of spying and killing two men during an incursion into its territory in May 2019, which Kigali disputed.
Talks between Messrs. Kagame and Museveni had been organized under the aegis of the Angolan and Congolese presidents. The fourth and last meeting took place in February 2020.
No meeting has been held since, in particular due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Relations were also soured last year by the publication of the Pegasus spyware investigation, which claimed that Rwanda had used the software to hack into the phones of Ugandan Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, among others, between 2014 and 2021, and Ugandan Minister of Foreign Affairs in office since 2015, Sam Kutesa.
strs-sva / blb
