Rwanda and Uganda have reopened their land borders after a three-year closure over political tensions. The border shutdown caused a near collapse in trade between the two countries.
The two countries have accused each other of supporting opposition groupsImage: Cyril Ndegeya/AA/picture alliance
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Rwanda on Monday reopened its Gatuna border crossing with Uganda after a three-year closure, indicating an apparent thaw in relations.
The frontier was closed in February 2019, as political differences between the East African neighbors spiraled.
Rwanda announced the opening last week after a visit to its capital, Kigali, by the son of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
Why was the border closed?
Museveni and Rwandan President Paul Kagame had been close allies in the 1980s and 1990s during their respective struggles for power in their countries. However, the alliance soured, and Rwanda shut the border after it accused Uganda of abducting its citizens and providing support to rebels seeking to overthrow Kagame.
Meanwhile, Uganda accused Rwanda of spying, in addition to killing two men in a 2019 incursion into Ugandan territory. Kigali has denied that claim.
Comments from a Rwandan government spokesman on Sunday signaled that some animosity still lingers.
Deputy government spokesman Alain Mukuralinda told Rwanda TV that Uganda had not yet addressed all the Rwandan grievances.
"It does not mean that cases of beatings, torture and deportations of Rwandan nationals are over. It does not mean that the people, based in Uganda, who want to destabilize Rwanda have stopped. We hope it is a good move towards stopping all that," he said.
100 days of slaughter: Rwanda's genocide
Rwanda's genocide began on April 7, 1994. It was a mass slaughter that shocked the world. At the time the international community — above all France and the UN — failed to come to the aid of victims.
Image: Timothy Kisambira
A signal to extremists
On April 6, 1994, unidentified attackers shot down a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana as it was about to land at Kigali airport. President Habyarimana, his Burundian counterpart and eight other passengers died in the crash. The next day organized killings began. Massacres continued over the course of three months, and nearly 1 million Rwandans lost their lives.
Image: AP
Targeted killings
After the assassination of the president, Hutu extremists attacked the Tutsi minority and Hutus who stood in their way. The murderers were well-prepared, and targeted human rights activists, journalists and politicians. One of the first victims on April 7 was Prime Minister Agathe Uwiringiymana.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Foreign nationals rescued
While thousands of Rwandans were being killed every day, Belgian and French special forces evacuated about 3,500 foreigners. On April 13, Belgian paratroopers rescued seven German employees and their families from Deutsche Welle's relay transmitting station in Kigali. Only 80 of 120 local staff members survived the genocide.
Image: P.Guyot/AFP/GettyImages
Appeals for help
As early as January 1994, UNAMIR commander Romeo Dallaire wanted to act on information he had received about an "anti-Tutsi extermination" plot. The warning he sent to the UN on January 11, later known as the "genocide fax," went unheard. And his desperate appeals after the genocide began were rejected by Kofi Annan, who was Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations at the time.
Image: A.Joe/AFP/GettyImages
Hate media
The Mille Collines radio station (RTLM) and Kangura, a weekly magazine, stoked ethnic hatred. In 1990, Kangura published the racist "Hutu Ten Commandments." Mille Collines radio, which was known for its pop music and sports programs, fueled the genocide by urging Hutu civilians to hunt down and kill Tutsis. Director Milo Rau devoted his film "Hate Radio" to these appalling broadcasts (photo).
Image: IIPM/Daniel Seiffert
Refuge in a hotel
In Kigali, Paul Rusesabagina hid more than 1,000 people in the Hotel Des Mille Collines. Rusesabagina had taken over the position of the hotel's Belgian manager, who left the country. With a great deal of alcohol and money, he managed to prevent Hutu militias from killing the refugees. In many other places where people sought refuge, they were not able to escape the slaughter.
Image: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/GettyImages
Massacres in churches
Churches were no longer sanctuaries. About 4,000 men, women and children were murdered with axes, knives and machetes in the church of Ntarama near Kigali. Today, the church is one of the country's many genocide memorials. Rows of skulls, human bones as well as bullet marks in the walls are a reminder of what happened there.
Image: epd
France's role
The French government maintained close ties to the Hutu regime. When the French army intervened in June, it enabled soldiers and militiamen responsible for the genocide to flee to Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and even take their weapons with them. They still pose a threat to Rwanda today.
Image: P.Guyot/AFP/GettyImages
Streams of refugees
During the genocide, millions of Rwandan Tutsis and Hutus fled to Tanzania, Zaire and Uganda. Some 2 million of them went to Zaire alone. These included former members of the army and perpetrators of the genocide, who soon founded the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a militia that is still terrorizing the population in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo today.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Capture of the capital
On July 4, 1994, rebels from the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) patrolled the area around the Church of the Holy Family in Kigali. By that time, they had liberated most of the country and routed the perpetrators of the genocide. However, human rights activists also accused the rebels of committing crimes, for which no one has been held accountable to this day.
Image: Alexander Joe/AFP/GettyImages
End of the genocide
On July 18, 1994, the RPF's leader, Major General Paul Kagame, declared that the war against the government troops was over. The rebels were in control of the capital and other important towns. Initially, they installed a provisional government. Paul Kagame became Rwanda's president in the year 2000.
Image: Alexander Joe/AFP/GettyImages
Lasting scars
The genocide went on for almost three months. The victims were often slaughtered with machetes. Neighbors killed neighbors. Not even babies and elderly people were spared, and the streets were strewn with corpses and body parts. It's not only the physical scars on the bodies of the survivors that remind Rwandans of the genocide. A deep trauma also remains.
Image: Timothy Kisambira
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The Gatuna crossing post, known as Katuna in Uganda, officially reopened at midnight, with traffic expected to gather pace throughout the day.
Why is the crossing reopening now?
The two governments have said they hope the reopening of the border can contribute to the normalization of relations.
The closure has not only affected Rwanda and Uganda. It also blocked a major commercial artery that funnels goods through the region from the Indian Ocean seaport of Mombasa in Kenya.
From there, products move through Uganda and on to Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern part of Congo.
Trade from Uganda to its smaller neighbor is far higher than in the opposite direction. Uganda's annual exports to Rwanda — predominantly cement and food — rose gradually to more than $200 million (€178 million) in the past two decades but plummeted after the border closure in 2019.
In 2020, those exports to Rwanda had dropped to under $2 million, with the fall in trade exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis.
