Rwanda on Tuesday accused Uganda of supporting rebel groups opposed to President Paul Kagame\u2019s government, amid a resurgence of hostility between the African neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relations between the two nations soured last week after Rwanda blocked Ugandan cargo trucks from entering its territory at the busiest crossing point, Katuna, and barred its nationals from crossing into Uganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officials in Kigali say they have directed trucks to another border point 100 km (60 miles) away, but hundreds of them are still stuck at the frontier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rwandan Foreign Minister Richard Sezibera accused Uganda of offering succor to two foreign-based Rwanda rebel groups – Rwanda National Congress (RNC) and Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRNC and FDLR work from Uganda with support of some authorities there. This is another serious case and we have raised it with them,\u201d he told a news conference in Kigali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The RNC is a rebel group led by some of Rwanda\u2019s most prominent dissidents including South Africa-based Kayumba Nyamwasa. Its founders say it is a political party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FDLR is a rebel group composed in part of former Rwandan soldiers and Hutu militias who fled into Democratic Republic of Congo after massacring around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus during Rwanda\u2019s 1994 genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group has since sought to topple Kagame\u2019s government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa said the accusations were false. Uganda could not allow anyone threatening a neighbor \u201cto operate from its territory,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rwanda and Uganda have a shared political, ethnic and security history that has alternately been friendly and hostile over the decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kagame fought in a guerrilla war that brought Uganda\u2019s Yoweri Museveni to power in 1986. Years later, Uganda backed Kagame\u2019s rebel group that helped end the Rwandan genocide and took power in Kigali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sezibera also accused Uganda of incarcerating, torturing and illegally deporting its citizens \u201cfor reasons we don\u2019t understand\u201d. Rwanda had recorded 190 such cases, he said.Traffickers farmed Russia’s World Cup for sex slaves<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen some people are deported they reach our border in poor health. This has been happening for a long time and there is no solution so far,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than a hundred cargo trucks carrying fuel, food, construction materials and other items from Kenya and Uganda have been stranded at Katuna, the busiest crossing point on the Rwanda-Uganda border since the blockade started on Feb. 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rwanda depends for much of its imports on a trade route through Uganda to Kenya\u2019s Indian Ocean port of Mombasa. The same artery is also a pipeline for goods from Kenya and Uganda to Burundi and parts of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rwanda on Tuesday accused Uganda of supporting rebel groups opposed to President Paul Kagame\u2019s government, amid a resurgence of hostility between the African neighbors. Relations between the two nations soured last week after Rwanda blocked Ugandan cargo trucks from entering its territory at the busiest crossing point, Katuna, and barred its nationals from crossing into Uganda. Officials in Kigali say… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3289,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3286\/revisions\/3289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}