KAMPALA – The Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for the Great Lakes region, Xia Huang, and the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for the Great Lakes region and Burundi, Basile Ikouébé, has welcomed the communiqué of the Quadripartite Summit, which took place on 21 February 2020 in Katuna at the border between Rwanda and Uganda.
They welcome the progress made as well as the firm commitment of both President Yoweri Museveni and President Paul Kagame to implement the Memorandum of Understanding signed in Luanda, Angola, on 21 August 2019 with a view to normalizing the relations between their two countries.
Xia Huang has also to expressed high appreciation about the decisive involvement of President João Lourenço and President Felix Tshisekedi Tshilombo in this process from the outset.
Both United Nations and the African Union have since reaffirmed their readiness to accompany the efforts towards enhancing trust among leaders, the improvement of relations and the strengthening of cooperation between the countries of the region in line with the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region.
The Katuna meeting recommended that Uganda within one month verifies allegations of the Republic of Rwanda about action from its territory by forces hostile to the government. If the allegations are proved, the Ugandan government should take all measures to stop it from happening again.
The summit also resolved that once the recommendation is fulfilled and reported to the heads of state, the facilitators will convene within 15 days, a summit at Katuna for the solemn reopening of the borders and subsequent normalization of the relations between the two countries.
