By our reporter
Rwandan truckers and exporters say they are paying a steep price for the conflict in the eastern region of neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, having to deal with angry locals and fearful customers.
DRC is Rwanda’s second-biggest trading partner, buying $156-million worth of goods in the first nine months of 2024, according to the National Institute of Statistics.
Anjia Prefabricated, a $100-million Chinese-owned cement factory in Rwanda’s Muhanga district, gets all its clinker — a key ingredient for cement — from DRC by truck and boat.
“This stopped shortly before the war reached Bukavu. All our trucks… are now parked,” said Israel Byiringiro, its head of procurement.
“We’ve been using our clinker stocks but they are drying up fast,” said Byiringiro, adding that they were now having to use a much costlier route through Tanzania that adds some 800 kilometres.
Firms are also losing customers after construction companies in Bukavu and Goma were targeted in the unrest or fled the violence, said Davis Twahirwa, head of sales for Cimerwa, another Rwandan cement company, which typically sold a third of its output into DRC.
“When it is a war zone no one wants to enter there,” said Abdul Ndarubogoye, president of the Rwanda Transporters Association.
“This has cost transporters and traders a lot of money, some truckers were trapped there in the war zone, which caused major delays,” he added.
He said Rwandan-registered lorries account for some 40 percent of those entering eastern DRC, but they don’t want to risk being attacked by anti-Rwandan groups.
Source: eNCA
