The Treaty for accession of South Sudan to the East African Community (EAC) will be signed in Dar es Salaam on Friday, 15 April 2015 the Secretariat has announced.
President John Magufuli of Tanzania will sign the document as the chairman of the EAC Heads of State Summit while South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit is expected to do the same for his country, the newest member to the bloc.
South Sudan was admitted to the EAC during the 17th Ordinary Summit of the regional leaders held in Arusha on March 2. The world’s newest nation, which gained independence in July 2011 after seceding from Sudan, applied to join the bloc later that year.
Presidents Magufuli, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Burundi Vice President Joseph Butore endorsed Juba’s application, which had been on cards in the last four years during their meetings.
The Arusha summit, which was attended by all regional leaders of the five partner states, except
President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, designated the Tanzanian leader as the chairperson of the Community to sign the Treaty of South Sudan’s accession on behalf of other leaders.
South Sudan now becomes the sixth member of the Community at a time when the application of war-torn Somalia is awaiting the dispatch of a verification team to Mogadishu to assess the Horn of Africa’s country readiness to join the Union.
EAC has lately attracted countries neighbouring the bloc. Sudan, which for many years administered Juba as an autonomous state, is reported to have applied to join the bloc while Comoro and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have shown willingness.
President Salva Kiir is already in Tanzania for a one-day state visit to the country.
SOURCE: AMECEA Online News and News Agencies
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