The news of the proposed establishment of a Ugandan Consulate in the Eastern DR Congo (DRC) town of Bunia and a Congolese Consulate in Arua city has excited the local leaders in both countries. This is after Daniel Baniyo, the Aru Territorial MP in DRC revealed that the development was announced by President Yoweri Museveni while hosting a delegation from Eastern DRC at State House in June this year.
According to Baniyo, President Museveni said the two Consulates will help in addressing the issues affecting the people living along the border of Uganda and DRC. “When President Museveni hosted us in Kampala in June, he confirmed that Uganda will open a Consulate in Bunia and Congo will open a Consulate in Arua,” Baniyo said during a bilateral meeting in Maracha Town Council on Saturday.
The meeting that attracted over 100 Congolese delegates led by Col. Richard Mbambi Kingana Kitabakulu, the Aru Territorial Administrator was a follow up of the meeting held in DRC’s Ariwara town on July 14, 2023. The Congolese delegates were welcomed by Rtd. Capt. Yasin Buga Matata, the Maracha RDC, who doubled as the head of the Ugandan team which comprised the business community, elders, the youth, opinion leaders, politicians, technocrats and security officials among others.
The meeting was meant to review the resolutions passed in DRC especially on the pockets of insecurity along the border and forge a way forward to the problems so as to improve the relationship between the two sides. But during the function, Baniyo urged the local leaders in the West Nile region and those in Congo to start preparing their children to work in the two Consulates yet to be opened. Denis Lee Oguzu, the Maracha County MP commended Baniyo for bring up the issue of the Consulates which he said will help in solving their local problems along the border.
