Africa’s long running border disputes to be settled under ambitious AU programme

Since gaining independence 52 years ago, Uganda has had disputes with all its neighbours over ownership of various border areas.

The latest clash, in mid-September 2014, left close to 10 Ugandans and South Sudanese dead over the disputed Wano village along the two countries’ common border.

The dispute in Moyo District pitted the Madi community of Uganda against the Kuku of South Sudan.

The attacks started when Moyo District census enumerators in northern Uganda were arrested by the South Sudan Kajo-Keji County security as they conducted a population census in the disputed area.

Youths from Madi burnt 15 grass-thatched huts belonging to the Kuku community of South Sudan in Moyo before crossing into South Sudan and killing several people.

In retaliation, South Sudanese youth stormed Uganda, hacked people to death and burnt houses.

Following the attacks, Uganda’s Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, and his South Sudan counterpart, Gen Pieng Deng Kuol, agreed to deploy joint border patrols and are carrying out surveillance operations on both sides of the border in order to reduce the tensions.

RESOLVING CONFLICT

They also directed their criminal investigation departments to investigate the causes of the skirmishes.

On September 18, President Yoweri Museveni sent a special envoy, Asuman Kiyingi, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation, to Juba to discuss the current situation between the two countries.

The three issues of concern were: the border question at Moyo, the directives by South Sudan on the expulsion of alien workers from the world’s youngest nation, and un-paid claims to Ugandan traders by South Sudan.

Kiyingi met President Salva Kiir in Juba and told journalists on his return that he had reminded Juba that Museveni and Kiir visited Moyo in 2009 over the border dispute and asked residents to avoid erecting permanent structures there until the two countries undertook a border verification and demarcation exercise.

During the last Joint Permanent Commission meeting on December 5, 2012 in Kampala, the two countries agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to pave the way for the creation of the Joint Technical Border Verification and Demarcation Committee.

LONG-RUNNING CONFLICTS
President Kiir informed Kiyingi that the MoU had been cleared by Juba’s Ministry of Justice, and that the Joint Permanent Commission was supposed to have met in Juba in 2013, but was delayed by unavoidable circumstances.

Uganda also requested Kiir to restrain border communities from any actions that would escalate the situation between the two countries until the question is addressed through the agreed mechanisms. “We remain hopeful that this will hold,” Kiyingi said.

Uganda also protested the arrest of census enumerators, saying that such actions “were not in the best interests of both countries as allies”.

Uganda has had long-running border conflicts with its northern neighbour even before South Sudan became the world’s newest nation in July 2011.

This has involved the districts of Moyo, Adjumani and Yumbe.

South Sudan has laid claim to parts of Lefori Sub-county, Avogi and Logoba in Moyo district, the entire Dufele Sub-county and parts of Adjumani District bordering Nimule.

Uganda also has another long-running dispute with Kenya over the ownership of Migingo Island, located in Lake Victoria.

The tiny, rocky island with a population of about 600 people has been under Ugandan police control since 2005, and the dispute emanates from the fact that the isle is a prosperous breeding ground for fish, a resource vital for the fisheries industries of both economies.

AFRICA UNION BORDER PROGRAMME

According to the Status Report on Survey and Demarcation of International Borders, issued by the Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, a bilateral ministerial consultative meeting over the issue, which was held in July 2011, agreed that a joint survey be carried out within three months with effect from the date of the meeting.

But there is a silver lining in the cloud; all these border disputes, and many others on the continent, could soon be settled by the African Union Border Programme (AUBP), funded by the German government.

The AU has adopted the AUBP to solve border disputes in order to promote peace, security and stability, and also facilitate the socio-economic integration of sustainable development of the continent.

According to AUBP, since African countries gained independence, their borders, which were drawn during the colonial period in a context of rivalries between European countries and their scramble for territories in Africa, have been a recurrent source of conflicts and disputes on the continent.

“Most of the borders are poorly defined,” says the AUBP. “The location of strategic natural resources in cross-border areas poses additional challenges.”

The transition from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to the AU was accompanied by a commitment to clearly define and demarcate all African boundaries.

CRISIS PREVENTION

In 2007, the 8th AU Summit of Heads of State and Government directed the AU Commission to focus on the structural prevention of conflicts. It was in this context that the AUBP was created.

The AUBP is a milestone in the AU’s commitment to peace and security: In addition to delimiting and demarcating borders — delimitation being the contractual definition of a border and demarcation the practical one — the AUBP is a tool for increasing regional integration, facilitating cross-border cooperation and developing institutional capacities.

During the 3rd conference of African ministers in charge of border issues held in Niamey, Niger, in May 2012, the ministers acknowledged border management as a crucial requirement for peace, stability and economic integration, and reaffirmed their commitment to further efforts for the implementation of the AUBP.

Aiming at crisis prevention and capacity building, the German Federal Foreign Office supports the AU’s efforts in border management.

Implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Foreign Office, this support reflects the multi-focus, multi-level approach of the AUBP, which includes delimitation and demarcation, cross-border cooperation and capacity development on the supranational, regional, national and local levels.

On November 25, 2013, the German Ambassador to Uganda, Klaus Dieter Düxmann, handed over equipment for border delimitation and demarcation to the minister for land, housing and urban development, Daudi Migereko, at the Land Information Centre in Kampala.

CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION
The equipment will enable Ugandan surveyors to conduct delimitation and demarcation works along the border between Uganda and Rwanda.

Both GIZ and AUBP experts will advise and support both countries in these activities.

GIZ also aims to set up agreements with the two countries to support workshops, meetings, trainings, the purchase of construction materials, the sensitisation of the local population and encouraging cross-border cooperation.

The ultimate aim is to map and demarcate all borders between Uganda and its neighbours as part of the AUBP, starting with the border between Uganda and Rwanda.

The exercise will cover the entire 169 kilometres of the Rwanda-Uganda boundary, first demarcated by an Anglo-German boundary commission between 1910 and 1911.

“We all know that many conflicts between states arise from border issues. Even when a border is generally agreed between two countries, there may remain uncertainties and, thereby, causes for dispute which hinder peaceful and profitable good-neighbourly relations,” Amb Düxmann said at the signing ceremony.

“I sincerely wish that joint border management between Uganda and its neighbours will lead to new economic and social activities that benefit the population on both sides of these borders, improve their living and bring them closer together.”

PRIORITY FOR PEACE
Migereko noted that financial and technical problems delayed the implementation of the exercise, adding: “This programme will reduce tensions and conflicts over borders. We have had military incursions in Africa as a result of border disputes. Therefore, for peace to prevail, our territories and borders have to be sorted out and observed.

“We need to sensitise not only our governments, but the communities living next to each other of the importance of respecting our international boundaries. We need to train the technical manpower to execute, service and maintain this programme.”

GIZ support to the AUBP is coordinated from the AU secretariat in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The programme runs under the motto, “From Barriers to Bridges”, which underlines that international borders should not be perceived as barriers, but rather, as bridges which enable cross-border cooperation and international trade.

According to the Status Report on Survey and Demarcation of International Borders, “AU’s involvement, however, is not only financial assistance, but to mediate as well in areas of disagreements when they arise in the course of discussions and the subsequent survey works of the boundaries.”

Borders are a priority for peace and security. Where they are generally accepted, they enable peaceful and profitable relations with neighbours and socio-economic growth. But where they are disputed, they can give rise to conflict, ruining lives and devastating countries.

The AUBP reports that demarcation of the Uganda-Tanzania border was completed in 2003, even though the two countries are yet to work on their border in Lake Victoria as they are still awaiting tripartite negotiations involving Kenya as well.