President Museveni has met with Mr. Guang Cong, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, at Mbale State Lodge.
The two held in-depth discussions on regional security, the Nile River disputes, and the broader geopolitical challenges affecting the Horn of Africa.
Mr. Cong, who was appointed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in July 2025 to succeed Ghana’s Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, expressed appreciation for the opportunity to engage President Museveni on strategic regional issues. He said his mission was to understand the challenges in the Horn of Africa and explore how the United Nations could contribute effectively to ongoing peace efforts.
“I would love to hear from you about your assessments of the challenges facing the region and what we can do — where you think you and the United Nations can add value to the ongoing efforts,” Mr. Cong said.
President Museveni, a long-time advocate of Pan-Africanism and unity, told the UN envoy that persistent instability in the Horn of Africa stems from ideological bankruptcy and opportunism among political leaders.
He noted that many conflicts arise from leaders who build politics around identity — tribe, religion, or race — rather than addressing people’s material needs such as food, income, and security.
“Because they are ideologically bankrupt, they use politics of identity — tribe, religion, race — like in the case of Sudan. That’s how they broke it up, trying to emphasize Arabism and Islam on everyone when the people were diverse and different,” Museveni said.
Drawing parallels with Uganda’s own history, he recalled how the country once grappled with sectarian divisions until the National Resistance Movement (NRM) introduced a unifying ideological framework in the 1960s.
Museveni said the combination of “bad politics and bad methods” has entrenched violence in several African nations, particularly where leaders fail to build strong national institutions like the army and police that can defend their countries without external dependence.
“If you divide people into sectarian groups, you can’t form a national political party. You can’t create national institutions like the army or police. That’s why some of these states depend on foreigners or the United Nations to defend them,” he said.
President Museveni illustrated Africa’s cultural diversity and the need for tolerance, recounting a past conversation with former Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir about religious coexistence.
“I told Bashir that my list of haram (forbidden things) is much longer than his, but I don’t talk about it. I don’t eat fish—I call it a snake. I don’t eat sheep or chicken because I believe it causes instability. But this is my culture, and I respect others who eat them,” Museveni said humorously.
He added that in his community, chickens are kept for spiritual purposes, not for food, yet this does not cause conflict with other ethnic groups such as the Baganda, who commonly eat chicken.
“Most Muslim youth are copying nonsense from the Middle East, judging others for what they eat. If someone eats pork, has he put it in your mouth? No. So how is it your problem?” he asked, urging mutual respect and peaceful coexistence.
President Museveni emphasized that Uganda’s regional interventions, such as in Somalia, are driven by the principle of African self-reliance and solidarity.
“We intervened in Somalia to teach that Africa belongs to us, and whoever wants to be here must respect everyone. If we are pagans, Christians, or Muslims, we must live together,” he said.
“The problem is internal, worsened by foreign interference and Europeans supporting bogus groups.”
Turning to South Sudan, Museveni explained that Uganda’s involvement was aimed at preventing state collapse, which would have worsened humanitarian suffering and regional instability.
“This is the same problem of sectarianism—originally between Arabs and Africans, and now among African tribes themselves. Our position has been to stop a collapse because that would be a disaster,” he said.
He added that Uganda has consistently advised President Salva Kiir to maintain national unity and pursue peaceful solutions to political disagreements.
“There were problems within the SPLM itself, and differences between Salva Kiir and Riek Machar. But there’s really no unsolvable problem. If you have political disagreements, why not go for elections and let the people decide?” Museveni advised, citing Kenya’s example of managing divisions peacefully through democratic processes.
Mr. Cong also sought President Museveni’s perspective on the growing tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia over the Nile River.
In response, Museveni said the real threat to the Nile is environmental degradation and lack of socio-economic transformation across the Nile Basin, not political rivalry.
“The danger to the Nile is the increasing population, which is poor and backward. They depend on biomass for cooking, cut forests, and destroy wetlands through primitive agriculture. If you care about the Nile, you should focus on transforming the economies in the catchment areas,” Museveni said.
He stressed that modernizing agriculture, industrializing economies, and expanding access to clean energy are essential for protecting the Nile’s ecosystem.
Citing data, Museveni revealed that water flow from Uganda to Sudan has dropped from 60 billion cubic meters in 1964 to about 40 billion cubic meters today due to deforestation and declining rainfall.
“So, where has the 20 billion gone? It’s because of environmental destruction and less rain. That’s what people should be discussing,” he said.
He further urged leaders to explore the potential of other major water systems like the Congo River, which he said carries 3,000 billion cubic meters of water, compared to the Nile’s 85 billion cubic meters.
“You’re quarreling about the Nile’s 85 billion cubic meters, yet the Congo River has 3,000 billion. If there was peace, the water entering the ocean every minute would be enough for all of us,” he noted.
President Museveni emphasized that Africa’s path to peace and prosperity depends on ideological clarity, unity, and leadership that prioritizes the real needs of the people over power struggles.
Mr. Cong thanked the President for his insights and reaffirmed the UN’s commitment to supporting regional stability.
“Thank you so much, Your Excellency, for the opportunity to meet with you. I wish you and the people of Uganda a very successful election,” the UN envoy said.
A seasoned Chinese diplomat, Mr. Cong took office in July 2025 with a mandate to advance peace, stability, and cooperation in the Horn of Africa — a region long affected by conflict, resource competition, and foreign interference.
The meeting formed part of Uganda’s continued engagement with international partners to promote peace, stability, and socio-economic transformation across the region.
