Equatorial Guinea's Nguema arrives for visit

Dec 13, 2019

He is slated to tour Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement Centre to get first-hand experience on how Uganda has successfully handled the refugee crisis

President Yoweri Museveni on Friday welcomed President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea at State House, Entebbe at the start of a 2-day official visit to Uganda at the invitation of his Ugandan counterpart.

Nguema who is the official African Union (AU) Champion of 2019 on finding solutions to forced displacements in Africa, is slated to tour Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement Centre to get first-hand experience on how Uganda has successfully handled the refugee crisis.

In a tête-à-tête between the two leaders, Museveni thanked Nguema Mbasogo for the visit in order to highlight the crucial issue of refugees. He noted that Uganda did not have political problems with refugees because of the country's Pan-Africanism orientation.

 

"Our tribes here are interlinked right from Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. The only challenges that we face now are to do mainly with logistics," he said.

Commenting on one of the biggest causes of the refugee crisis as being terrorism, Museveni noted that it all started with the politics of identity, which created sectarian parties and in the process fragmented them. He added that Africans must desist from such because it fuels the refugee crises.

Nguema appreciated Museveni and Uganda for opening up the borders to accommodate different nations' citizens fleeing from war. He encouraged other African countries to emulate Uganda.

 

"I am here to be able to see face to face how the refugee settlements run and how the policies operate. It is very difficult to eradicate the issues of refugees because of things like terrorism but we must do our best," he said.

Nguema called upon African leaders to discourage fighting among their people and jointly look into curtailing illegal arms to curb terrorism.

He added that Equatorial Guinea was planning to organise and host what he called the ‘Silence of Arms' Conference in March 2020 to advocate for illegal arms restriction.

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