Yesterday the stars must have been well-aligned for this region as the good news far out-weighed the bad. But let us begin with the bad. The old demons that have been hounding Burundi struck again this week with news that an armed group had made incursions into Burundi from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The news coming out is scanty as a team of four local journalists and their driver were arrested when they visited the scene of the attack. “Trouble” seems to be the DRC’s second name as many of its neighbours have come to learn the hard way. The consolation is that security chiefs of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, DRC and Rwanda are meeting in the Congolese town of Goma to try to figure out how to pacify the region. The latest edition of the World Bank Doing Business report came out and as usual, Rwanda was up there among the best performers. But this time it was not the only one from the region as Kenya managed to sprint the last lap and took the continent’s third position behind Rwanda. Mauritius again took the honours. For Rwanda with its ambitious plans, the great anticipation was the Russia-Africa Forum that ended yesterday in Sochi. Apart from the many deals waiting for its signature, the icing on the cake was atomic. The Russian government would help Rwanda set up Center for Nuclear Science and Technology (CNST) for scientific purposes. This deal seems to have made a lot of tongues flutter but now they may as well take a deserved rest as the ink dries on the agreement. Burundi did not come out of Sochi empty-handed either. They struck a deal of 300 licences for office management software, MyOffice, the first office software deal signed with an African country. But Tanzania took the crown when it increased the marriage age from 14 to 18 years old thereby scrapping child marriages. Kudos to East Africa. editor@newtimesrwanda.com
