In an attempt to control on of the most embarrassing moments for the Ugandan President, several outlets close to the regime are floating a distortion of fact on the Uganda-Rwanda MOU just signed in Angola.

Chimpreport, reputed to be under the payroll of the Ugandan Military Intelligence agency CMI, along with other news outlets are trivializing serious issues and confusing the cause to the effects. Factually, Rwandan in Uganda were the subject of a coordinated wave of arbitrary arrest, torture and deportation. Innocent Rwandans died in an elaborate plan carried out in conjunction with the RNC, a violent anti-Rwandan terrorist organizations.

Subsequently, Rwanda advised its citizens not to travel to Uganda for their own safety as it embarked on a quest to secure the release of its citizens detained without trial, with no access to anyone (Family, lawyers or embassy officials). Trade suffered between Rwanda and Ugandan as Rwandans sought safer markets sending shockwaves on border towns in Uganda.

Business in Kisoro, Kabale and elsewhere suffered as a direct result of the hostile policies taken by Uganda. Everything from the manufacturing sector to transport to the energy sector (eg. Petrol station) took a massive hit. It is estimated that Uganda, which had just lost a $200 million US Dollar market, lost about $ 11 million per month in trade.

There is no way to spin this fact, Rwanda as the 5th trading market for Uganda was a big loss for Uganda so much so that their President had to negotiate for the normalization of bilateral relations.

In Angola, the signed Luanda memorandum obligates Uganda to cease all support to terrorists and destabilizing enterprises against Rwanda, to respect Rwandan rights on transit or residing in Uganda and captures the essence to stop acts economic sabotage – diplomatically written as promoting trade.

Capitulating is embarrassing, CMI directly caused the crisis as it is singled out in the arbitrary arrests and in supporting RNC. As a face saving option, it has apparently instructed all its controlled media to publish a false narrative that the border crisis is solved. They float lies that Rwanda was running out of food when nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, a number of Ugandans were caught over and over again smuggling beans from Rwanda to Uganda as food scarcity hit Ugandan border towns.

CMI will now have to release the hundreds, if not thousand, of Rwandan they held incommunicado and stop its collaboration with the RNC. Failure to do so will attract the region’s fury! Fundamentally, it is not a crisis border but a crisis caused by an attempted breach of Rwanda’s sovereignty and a violation of Rwandan human rights. A gross miscalculation by Ugandan Intelligence that Rwanda would not value its rights and that of its people harmed the Ugandan Economy.