Reported by
Faridah N Kulumba
Africa-Press – Uganda. The government of Uganda and Burundi’s are finalising plans to build a new road to promote trade and commerce and to over come a barrier presented by Rwanda’s closure of Gatuna border in early 2021. According to the article published by the Daily Monitor, the new road is planned to pass through northern Tanzania from Uganda in two fangs, and then merge into one thoroughfare to Ngara in North-western Tanzania and link to Burundi’s Kobero Border Crossing Point.
The two routes are 360km and 274km, according to google map computations, and would take between four to six and half hours drive, compared to seven-and-half hours drive on the 348 kilometres from Gatuna to Bujumbura.
The details of the new road project were agreed upon during a meeting between President Yoweri Museveni and his Burundian counterpart Evariste Ndayishimiye during the latter’s May 13-14 after he attended Museveni’s inauguration on May 12.
“We talked about the road from Kitagate- Morongo-Isingiro inside Tanzania -Keisho- to Kayanga. That road is an old murrum road if it is upgraded and murrumed properly people can use it from the Mbarara side,” said President Museveni.
Uganda-Burundi ties
Uganda and Burundi continue to enjoy cordial relations as friends and ally, and there has been exchange of visits at both official and highest levels. The visits by the presidents from both countries have strengthened further bilateral relations and inspired confidence in the business community in the two countries. A number of cooperation agreement and Memorandum of Understandings have been negotiated and concluded, these include trade and investment and many more.
Provocations
Uganda’s trade with Burundi and Rwanda, which is inland, has plunged since President Paul Kagame closed the busier Gatuna border, initially citing constructions point, and later blaming arrests of Rwandan citizens in Uganda. Uganda also accused Rwanda of infiltration and espionage, but later Uganda’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York Ambassador Adonis Ayebare, led the diplomacy to resolve the stand-off.
Finalising plans
The Uganda’s Minister of state for Works Joy Kabasi said that Government officials from Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania plus top technocrats superintending the work and roads sectors from the three countries are scheduled to meet on June 20, 2021.
Jean Perre Ndaziraye business man during an interview with Africa-Press expressed his happiness saying that this project will make the journey between Uganda and Burundi easier. “So we will be able to travel directly to Burundi within a few hours,” he said. Each state is expected to bankroll construction of the portion of the road passing through its territory.
