On Friday, in a press conference at the airport in Bujumbura after a three-day visit to Uganda, Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye announced that Uganda and Burundi will be using a new trade route via Tanzania.
In a carefully worded declaration, he alleged that Rwanda (calling it a neighbour) blocked trade between Uganda and Burundi. In reality, Burundi blocked all goods and transit goods through the Rwanda-Burundi border.
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in the last week of March 2020, Burundi refused all entry from Rwanda, including transit goods and passengers, through its land border crossing points. The move created gridlock in the EAC Northern Corridor (Burundi-Rwanda-Uganda-Kenya) and a diplomatic protest from Uganda and Kenya.
With Burundi-bound cargo trucks stuck at the Rwanda-Burundi border, Rwanda logically advised Uganda and Kenya of the development asking them to seek alternative routes.
Available diplomatic notes verbal show that on the 31st of March 2020, Rwanda informed Kenya and Uganda of a blockade of goods heading to Burundi by Burundian officials. In the notes, Rwanda explained that as of the 30th March that year, there were 23 trucks stranded in Rwanda heading to Burundi despite an earlier EAC Ministerial meeting about transport of cargo goods during the Covid-19 outbreak. Effectively, Burundi sealed off its land border with Rwanda.
When in his interview the Burundian President said that the "neighbour” would be circumvented by passing Ugandan goods through Tanzania, it puzzled more than a few.
We contacted Rwanda’s customs official and according to Mr William Musoni —the Deputy Commissioner for Customs Services at Rwanda Revenue Authority— Rwanda did not block transit goods to Burundi.
"It would actually be against international conventions”, Mr Musoni said and added, "It is Burundi that blocked goods from entering its territory,” he said, giving examples of various cases of trucks stranded at all Rwanda-Burundi border posts including cargo for UN agencies.
Asked why Burundi blocked border traffic, he told us that Burundian officials offered no communication or justification.
A search about incidents where Burundi refused entry to its own cargo and nationals found 23 such cases between the 26th of March 2020 and the 1st of May 2020.
On March 27th, six Burundian nationals found themselves blocked in no man’s land at Akanyaru-Haut border post for four days after Burundi refused them entry.
They were assisted by Rwandan officials and taken to the Burundian Embassy in Kigali. Added to the Akanyaru-Haut blockade, March 27th recorded 13 other incidents at various border posts; two Burundian registered trucks at Ruhwa border post and 11 trucks (8 Burundian, 2 Ugandan and 1 Kenyan) all refused entry by Burundian officials at the Nemba border.
These incidents continued for all traffic outbound to Burundi and on May 1st, even inbound traffic to Rwanda was blocked by Burundian officials; a Tanzania truck carrying chicken feed to Uganda was refused exit.
President Ndayishimiye and Museveni held a joint press briefing indicating their plan to restore trade routes via Tanzania. However, while Uganda and Rwanda trade suffered since March 2019 as a result of hostile acts against Rwandans living in Uganda causing a travel advisory to Rwandans, transit goods between Uganda and Burundi were not affected.
"Rwanda kept its trade relations open with Burundi but for safety reasons, it does not allow Rwandans to travel to Uganda,” a regional observer said, "for reasons only known to the Burundian Head of State, he is linking the Rwanda-Uganda crisis to Burundi.”
Essentially, the regional analyst noted, "Burundi should have explained to Uganda why it refused its goods to enter through Rwanda, but instead, they opted to blame Rwanda.”