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Congo keeps Uganda envoy second-guessing for three years
Uganda's Ambassador to DR Congo Farid Kaliisa. PHOTO | MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
What you need to know:
- As ambassador to DR Congo, Kaliisa also oversees our interests in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, and Gabon.
Uganda’s ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to DR Congo Farid Kaliisa is yet to present credentials to President Felix Tshisekedi, as is the customary practice, three years after he was designated which diplomatic sources describe as “an intentional snub.”
The snub, which has constipated his work, including being fully at the duty station, diplomatic sources told this newspaper, is “intended to send signals” to Kampala as the sending state. The signals, and sources indicated, are usually twofold: either the designated person is “unsuitable” or the host country has “serious issues” with the sending state.
Sources particularly related President Tshisekedi’s, who is on talking terms with his Ugandan counterpart, the snubbing of Ambassador Kaliisa “to appease” the establishment in Kinshasa long convinced that the Kampala regime is in cahoots with neighbouring Kigali in supporting the ragtag M23 rebel group.
Kampala has variously denied the charges of supporting the M23 that has left a trail of death, destruction, and despair in the eastern DR Congo.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary, Mr Vincent Bagiire, told this publication that they are dealing with the matter.
“He presented credentials to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but not to the President as yet,” Mr Bagiire confirmed.
Ambassador Kaliisa was named envoy to Kinshasa during the last ambassador reshuffle in December 2021, replacing James Mbahimba who was dropped.
As ambassador to DR Congo, he also oversees Uganda’s interests in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, and Gabon. However, since he was not fully inducted in Kinshasa, sources indicated that he has also yet to formally presenting credentials to the presidents of other countries.
We were unable to reach Ambassador Kaliisa for a comment on his known Ugandan mobile telephone network.
Initially it was believed, sources indicated, the delay was due to President Tshisekedi’s, who first came to power in 2019 and was re-elected last December, busy schedule. However, then it emerged that envoys of other countries accredited to Kinshasa were variously being granted audience within the same period.
An Ambassador’s credentials is a personal letter addressed to the Head of State of a receiving state by the head of State of the sending State. It bears the signature and seal of the President or King of the sending State.
Article 13 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations sets out the framework for the establishment, maintenance, and termination of diplomatic relations between states provides that: “The Head of the Mission is considered as having taken up his functions in the receiving State either when he has presented his credentials or when he has notified his arrival and a true copy of his credentials has been presented to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the receiving State, or such other ministry as may be agreed, in accordance with the practice prevailing in the receiving State which shall be applied in a uniform manner.”
The Heads of Mission, according to Article 14, are classified into three: Ambassadors or Nuncios accredited to Heads of State of the receiving state; Envoys, Ministers, and Internuncios accredited to Heads of State; and Chargés d’affaires accredited to Ministers for Foreign Affairs.
Article 4 of the Vienna Convention details that: “The sending State must make certain that the agrément of the receiving State has been given for the person it proposes to accredit as head of the mission to that State.”
An agrément is the agreement by a state to receive members of a diplomatic mission from a foreign country. In this case, Kinshasa issued Ambassador Kaliisa’s agrément in 2021, which means they accepted him.
While Ambassador Kaliisa’s snub for three years is peculiar, according to diplomatic sources, the experience can be unnerving for those designated for the coveted ambassadorial postings.
The White House for instance snubbed Uganda’s ambassador-designate to Washington DC, Ms Robbie Kakonge, since she arrived at the station in September 2022. She only presented credentials on the morning of December 13, 2022 at a service that took no less than five minutes, just as President Museveni’s jet was touching down in DC to attend the US-Africa summit convened by President Joe Biden.
In Ambassador Kaliisa’s case, Retired Ambassador Harold Acemah, the former Deputy Head of Uganda’s Diplomatic Mission in Brussels, equated the three-year wait period to “a deliberate snub by the President of DR Congo to send a message to the sending State.”
“I am surprised because DR Congo is our neighbour, member of EAC. Uganda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs should have recalled him after one year or two at most and demanded an explanation from the host country (DR Congo) for the long and undue delay in presenting his credentials,” he said.
Ambassador Acemah opined that presenting credentials to the receiving country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs “does not suffice because an Ambassador’s Credentials is actually a personal Letter addressed to the Head of State of the host country by the Head of State of the sending State.”
Kampala and Kinshasa have variously exchanged words over the M23 question. Kinshasa and Kigali severed diplomatic ties over the same.
The M23, which international organisations have concluded, is backed by Rwanda, resumed fighting in April 2022 and by June it had captured Bunagana border post on the DRC side. They have since carried out several offensives taking over a huge chunk of territory in eastern DR Congo.
The Paris-based newswire, Agence France-Presse, reported on July 20 that Kinshasa had summoned Uganda’s charge d’affaires, Matata Twaha Magara following a July 8 United Nations panel of experts report that re-echoed “active support” for M23 by members of Ugandan intelligence.
The UN panel of experts investigating the violation of UN sanctions in eastern DR Congo, fingered UPDF and its spy agency, the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (now Defence Intelligence and Security (DIS) of actively supporting M23 rebels in its fight against DRC forces.
“The Group also obtained evidence confirming active support to M23 by certain UPDF and Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) officials. Intelligence sources and individuals close to M23 also confirmed the presence of Ugandan military intelligence officers in Bunagana since at least late 2023, to coordinate with M23 leaders, provide logistics, and transport M23 leaders to M23-controlled areas,” the report reads in part.
The State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Henry Okello-Oryem recently slammed the report as false because Uganda has never supported M23 or its allies, but engaged them only to facilitate direct talks with Kinshasa government.
“The engagement we had with M23 was aimed at ending the conflict. We wanted them to have direct engagement and give their demands to DRC. It was very simple,” Mr Oryema defended.
The DR Congo join the East African Community (EAC) as the seventh partner state in March 2022 extending the boundaries of the regional bloc to the Atlantic Ocean. In November 2020, Kinshasa also allowed UPDF inside its eastern territory to wipe out activities of the Islamist Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
About kaliisa
Ambassador Kaliisa speaking last month at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ retreat of ambassadors of ring states revealed that Kampala posted a $53m (Shs198b) trade surplus with the DR Congo, mainly facilitated by UDPF’s military operation in the eastern side to flash out the Islamist ADF rebels.
Uganda’s exports to the restive eastern DR Congo mainly include cereals, vegetable oil, refined petroleum oil, and salt, among others.
