Latest News Highlights

Uganda Embassy Brussels participated in the Brussels Holiday Fair from 7th to 10th February 2019, in Brussels to market the Pearl of Africa as number one tourist destination. The Embassy was represented by Tarsis Turyasingura Second Secretary, Eunice Engola Third Secretary, Jacob Kabigumira Financial Attache and Esther Imede Administrative Attache who actively show-cased the beautiful sceneries. Other members of staff visited the on different days

Brussels Holiday Fair is an international tourism expo that attracts more than 100,000 visitors that explore the fair and choose their next holiday destination and plan their trip. It is information sharing to the potential travelers, informing them about Uganda tourist attraction sites. 

 

Uganda tea and coffee were also served to who ever visited Uganda stand as a way of promoting Uganda products. Questions of security in Uganda were often posed especially given its proximity to DRC, but were adequately addressed by the Embassy staff.

Courtesy of Brussels Airlines, boxes of promotional materials were transported from Kampala to Brussels for which the Mission is very grateful.

Many potential tourists visited the Uganda stand for inquiries about the beauty of Uganda and tourist sites. Several tourism brochures were given out and the visitors were positively commenting about Uganda. The Fair attracted 100,117 visitors and about 500 people visited the Uganda stand. The successful participation impacts very positively on the potential of new visitors from coming to Uganda. 

In the picture is Hon. Sam K. Kutesa, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uganda attending the AU-EU Ministerial meeting on 21st - 22nd January 2019 in Brussels, Belgium as a follow up of the 5th AU-EU summit in Abidjan in November 2017. 

IGAD Ministers and HRVP met on 22 January 2019 on the margins of the AU-EU Ministerial in Brussels. 

During the meeting, the two sides strongly condemn the dreadful terrorist attack in Nairobi Kenya. The EU welcomed the historic developments in the Horn of Africa with the normalisation of relations between Eritrea, and Ethiopia; the tripartite agreement between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia as well as the engagement of Eritrea and Djibouti and Eritrea and Sudan towards normalisation of relations. Together, these provide major new openings for regional cooperation and economic integration. The EU expressed its readiness to accompany this process in close coordination with other actors. 

The EU also reiterated its commitment to the region as a whole and underlined its support to the IGAD cooperation framework while encouraging swift decisions on IGAD institutional arrangements. Both sides stressed their desire to consolidate regular dialogue between the EU and IGAD countries and focused their exchanges on peace and security, red sea and mutually beneficial economic cooperation. IGAD Ministers on their part expressed their appreciation for EU continued and constructive role in the region, welcome the initiative for such high level engagement and encouraged future engagements on deliverables in the region priority agenda such as job creation.  

The EU and IGAD countries expressed support for the reform agenda of the Federal Government of Somalia and underlined the need for concrete implementation of the political, security and economic reforms critical for Somalia stability. In this context, it is essential that the Federal Government and the Federal Member States overcome differences and collaborate in a close and coordinated manner. The EU also reiterated its commitment to support Somalia Recovery and Resilience Framework (RRF) and to support AMISOM in line with AMISOM's mandate [UNSCR 2432 (2018)] and the internationally agreed Somalia Transition Plan. 

The two parties also reiterated their support for the peace process in South Sudan and the R-ARCSS. They underlined the importance of its implementation in full and as per the agreed time frame. IGAD invites the EU to consider further support to the South Sudan Pre-transition activities, beyond current EU support to the mechanisms of monitoring and implementation. 

The EU and IGAD countries agreed to use all opportunities to promote and strengthen inclusive regional and cross-regional cooperation and dialogue between all relevant stakeholders across the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea on a wide range of issues of mutual interest, such as trade, migration, climate change, food security, peace and security as well as maritime security. In this connection, they agreed to promote regional cooperation, training and capacity building, port security, coastal development as well as blue economy

Yesterday the 15th January 2019 in Belgium Royal Palace New Years reception with King Philippe and Queen Mathilde. In the picture is Amb. Mirjam Blaak with CDA.a.i. of DRC and the lady doctor of the Belgian Royal family.

New year reception in the Hague Academy for international law at the Peace Palace in the Hague. It was attended by Amb. Mirjam Blaak. In the picture is President Prof. Yves Daudet addressing the invitees. This academy is organizing courses in international law for international students for about three weeks, twice per year. Ugandans are encouraged to apply for scholarships which are available. Website: hagueacademy.nl

The Embassy of the Republic of Uganda and Permanent Mission to the EU and the BENELUX received an invitation to the Vakantiebeurs which was honored by Ms. Eunice Engola, the Consular Officer.

Vakantiebeurs is a tourism exposition where tour agents publicize their services and products while travelers seek information on tour destinations. 2019 was the 49th edition of Vakantiebeurs with a Business to Business (B2B) lounge and a separate Seminar for Diplomats and company CEOs to have an insight of their operations and touristic information. Vakantiebeurs will run from 9th to 13th January with 1126 exhibitors from 119 countries in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

The event was opened by the Mr. J.H.C van Zanen, the Mayor of Utrecht

This was the 4 hour meeting with officials from Bridgin Foundation headed by Prof. Tanko Mohammoudou second right in the picture. The meeting took place on 18th December 2018 at Brussels Mission and was also attended by Amb. Denis A. Manana. The two parties discussed several potential projects to be piloted in Uganda.

On 3rd September Amb. Mirjam Blaak met Mr. Felix Ojok and Mr. Jamada Bwambale both Ugandan students at the Wageningen University pursuing a Master’s degree. The meeting took place during the Centennial celebration in Wageningen at the world famous agricultural university.  

The Office of the Special Presidential Assistant on Diaspora is organising a workshop on Diaspora awareness workshop in December. We would like this inform to be uploaded for information.

 Rt. Hon. Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga  attended the Commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court 16th - 17th July 2018 in The Hague.

11 Best Framers from Uganda have been invited for a week long tour to the Netherlands. The Best Framers competition is sponsored by the Dutch Embassy in Kampala, the DFCU Bank in Uganda, the New Vision newspaper and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

The EU Parliamentary Committee on Development headed by MEP Hon. McEvan invited Amb. Blaak and Mr. Balde of UNHCR Geneva in the morning of 18 May 2018 to make interventions on refugees in Uganda after the visit of the Committee to Uganda last week.

Practicing Sunday 25th March 2018 Football Ugandan diaspora Aalst in Belgium. Team is called UgaBel. You all better get prepared as the Uganda Diaspora international matches will be played in Munich on 14 and 15 July 2018. Save the date! 

By the looks of it UgaBel may win the international tournament.......

From 19-23 February 2018, the Government of Ireland and Trust Fund for Victims (TFV) at the International Criminal Court (ICC) led a joint monitoring visit to northern Uganda.

The monitoring visit, initiated by the Government of Ireland, was aimed at reviewing the implementation of TFV projects in northern Uganda, meeting with victim survivors and affected communities who have been receiving the support from the TFV, and hearing how the assistance has made positive impacts to them.