President Yoweri Museveni on Tuesday morning received his Central African Republic (CRA) counterpart, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, at State House Entebbe, a significant trip that will see him discuss peace and investment with his hosts.
Mr Touadéra is in the country on a three-day State visit, during which he will join his host Mr Museveni to mark Uganda’s 62nd Independence anniversary in Busia, about 200km east of the capital Kampala, according to the Ugandan presidency.
In a meeting attended by ministers and other officials from both countries, Mr Touadéra held talks with Mr Museveni focusing on bilateral cooperation, the promotion of peace and the exploitation of the abundant resources in the two countries.
The two leaders discussed the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) processes for former members of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group that operated in northern Uganda for about two decades but fled to the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the CAR, where they have been for several years.
The rebel leaders have been indicted by the International Criminal Court, but their commander, Joseph Kony, has remained elusive.
The Ugandan army was allowed into the CAR to pursue the Kony's rebels after they fled into the country. As a result of the cooperation between the two States, many former rebels and rebel captives have since been repatriated to Uganda.
Uganda and the CAR signed a memorandum of understanding on military cooperation in January this year during a bilateral meeting held in Kampala.