Borders to be demarcated

Uganda is in the process of drawing up clear boundaries with its neighbours, Rwanda and Tanzania. With increased mobility between nationals of the countries, compounded by the fact that some ethnic groups straddle the borders, officials say it has “become necessary” to re-demarcate the borders. The borders were not distinctly marked by the colonialists, they say, and over the years, there has been encroachment and settlement “making it difficult to know where exactly a country begins or ends”. “Officials from the governments concerned realised that it was time clear boundaries were set,” the Ugandan foreign ministry’s director for cooperation, James Baba, told IRIN on Tuesday. He said the officials met and agreed to set up joint committees to deliberate and supervise the demarcation. “There has not been any tension along the borders,” he added. Currently, the surveyors are working on the ground. As for the Uganda-Tanzania border, officials will meet “after the technical people finish their work”. The regional ‘EastAfrican’ newspaper, in its latest edition, termed the Uganda-Tanzania border issue a “long-standing, low-level, boundary dispute”. It quoted Uganda’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Baguma Isoke as saying that beacons along the border had been removed by unknown people during the Tanzania-Uganda war of 1978/79, thus raising concern over their replacement. Isoke had met senior officials from Tanzania’s lands ministry at the border town of Mutukula, in Kagera region. The areas targeted for demarcation are the Mutukula area between Uganda and Tanzania, and the Kisero and Ruhengeri areas around the Virunga mountains between Rwanda and Uganda.