Uganda Communications Commission-UCC on Thursday blocked access to Rwandan Websites including the state run New Times website and 6 others saying the websites have continued to publish harmful propaganda against Uganda.
The UCC Spokesperson, Ibrahim Bbosa, said UCC had directed “internet service providers to block New Times for publishing harmful propaganda that endangers national security of Uganda”.
Adding that, “We are engaging the regulator in Rwanda and hope this will be temporary,” Bbosa said. Currently, an attempt to visit the newspaper’s websites from Uganda returns an error.
On Friday, Rwanda also responded ‘positively’ by blocking some of Ugandan sites for the same allegations.
The blocked sites include;The Observer (www.observer.ug), NilePost (www.nilepost.ug), Softpower (www.softpower.ug) and New Vision (www.newvision.co.ug) and they can only be accessed via virtual private networks (VPN).
The blockage of websites comes just a day when Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagame of Rwanda signed a peace pact in Angola on Wednesday, signaling an end to the bitter diplomatic relations between Kampala and Kigali that had resulted into the closure of Gatuna border.
Despite the signing, the New Times newspaper, which is Rwanda government’s mouthpiece, continued to publish propagandist articles blaming the Kampala regime for the impasse.
