• Destinations

Uganda Pushes to Clear Lingering Entry Curbs as Fifteen Markets Keep Barriers in Place Uganda Pushes to Clear Lingering Entry Curbs as Fifteen Markets Keep Barriers in Place

Uganda's tourism and trade community is confronting an uncomfortable reality. The country has been formally declared free of Ebola, yet travellers holding Ugandan passports and visitors routing through Entebbe continue to meet restrictions in a number of overseas markets. The matter has now reached the floor of Parliament, where Leader of the Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi pressed government to account for why the curbs survive and what is being done to remove them.

Speaking during a sitting chaired by Speaker Jacob Marksons Oboth, Ssenyonyi was direct in his framing, noting that Uganda had been declared Ebola-free yet Ugandans still faced travel bans and restrictions in other countries, and asking government to explain why those bans remained and what steps were under way to have them lifted [[1]](https://nilepost.co.ug/news/378601/ssenyonyi-seeks-answers-over-travel-restrictions-on-ugandans-after-ebola-outbreak). The exchange followed arrangements for legislators from affected districts to attend a health conference on Uganda's Ebola response at Speke Resort Munyonyo [[2]](https://allafrica.com/stories/202610160585.html).

Responding for government, Chief Whip Jane Ruth Aceng, herself a former health minister, confirmed the country's clean status but pointed to the situation across the border. She acknowledged that porous frontiers with the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Ebola continues to affect hundreds of people, remain a genuine complication, and confirmed that authorities are engaging foreign governments to reconsider lifting the bans.

The commercial damage is already documented. Fifteen countries have continued to maintain either partial or full travel restrictions on Uganda following the outbreak, measures the government says have crippled tourism, trade and business despite a relatively successful containment effort [[3]](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jul/16/uganda-travel-restrictions-last-ebola-patient-discharged). That figure matters enormously for a destination whose gorilla trekking, Nile adventure and birding products depend heavily on long-haul source markets.

Among those holding firm is the United States. American health authorities issued a notice targeting the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan, while notably omitting Kenya, where a case had been confirmed only the previous week. The stated reasoning was that although Uganda had achieved successful containment, continued overland travel from the DRC posed an ongoing risk of cross-border transmission, particularly among healthcare workers and in western Ugandan districts serving as entry points for travellers seeking medical care [[4]](https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/ebola-us-maintains-travel-restrictions-on-uganda-despite-who-africa-cdc-calls-5629434) [[5]](https://nation.africa/kenya/news/africa/ebola-us-maintains-travel-restrictions-on-uganda-5629868). That position was maintained despite contrary advice from both the World Health Organization and Africa CDC>

The underlying epidemiology supports Uganda's frustration. The World Health Organization declared the Bundibugyo outbreak over on 27 August after forty-two consecutive days without a new confirmed case, with the episode recording twenty confirmed infections and two deaths [[3]](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jul/16/uganda-travel-restrictions-last-ebola-patient-discharged). By contrast, the DRC outbreak has continued, with more than nine thousand confirmed cases reported by mid-October, and Kenya has registered imported cases linked to it. WHO has consistently advised against imposing travel or trade restrictions on either Uganda or the DRC, warning that such measures disrupt movement and economic activity without delivering sound public-health benefit.

For travel professionals across the region, several practical lessons emerge. Reputational recovery consistently lags behind epidemiological recovery, often by many months. Agencies selling East African circuits should expect continued questions from clients and corporate travel buyers long after official all-clears are issued, and they should be prepared with clear, factual briefing notes rather than defensive reassurance. Insurance wordings, visa processing timelines and connecting-country transit rules all deserve fresh checking before confirming bookings.

There is also a broader strategic point about regional interdependence. Uganda's predicament demonstrates that a country can manage an outbreak well and still carry the consequences of a neighbour's crisis. That argues for stronger coordinated communication between East African tourism boards and health ministries, because fragmented messaging allows foreign authorities to apply blanket regional caution.

Parliament is expected to receive fuller briefings at the Munyonyo conference, where officials will review surveillance systems and prevention strategies. Agencies building Ugandan programmes should monitor those outcomes closely, since the lifting of remaining curbs will directly determine how quickly forward bookings recover.