The President also recalled the close cooperation between Uganda and Tanzania, citing trade, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, the Murongo-Kyikagate mini-hydro project, roads in Tanzania, the Masaka-Bukoba transmission line and the Standard Gauge Railway, which has reached Isaka and is expected to extend towards Uganda and beyond.
According to Mukula, Uganda believes in the free and orderly movement of people, goods, services, and capital within the framework of regional laws and protocols, stating that it will continue to stand for the dignity of African brothers and sisters because Africa belongs to Africans.
The governments of the US, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom, alongside the African Union (AU), European Union (EU), Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), League of Arab States (LAS), and the United Nations (UN), expressed deep concern over the severe humanitarian consequences of the war.
The EASF, which was established in 2007 and reached full operational capability in December 2015, is the product of several factors that have defined regional integration in the field of peace and security in Eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa, including long-standing and continuing tensions between countries of the region and the threats to peace and security with internal wars, environmental degradation, terrorism, and unconstitutional changes of government notwithstanding.