Why a Closed Border Has Uganda, Rwanda at Loggerheads 

Rwanda’s unilateral decision to close its busiest border crossing with Uganda at the end of February has disrupted trade and laid bare simmering tensions between the two East African nations. The neighbors have had intermittent disagreements in the past but mainly were allies in recent years, and helped quell armed conflict during and after a civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. An escalation of Rwanda-Uganda animosity could derail two of Africa’s fastest-growing economies and destabilize the greater region.

President Paul Kagame’s government says it needed to carry out repairs on the road serving the Katuna border post, which handles most trade between the two countries. The closing caught Uganda unaware and stranded dozens of trucks that were en route from its cities to Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, and beyond to Burundi, Congo and Zambia. Uganda’s government has yet to establish whether “there is another reason beyond the road construction work” for Rwanda’s action, spokesman Ofwono Opondo, said on March 6.