The East African Community (EAC) partner states will make
further consultations on the applications of South Sudan and Somalia to join
the bloc, it was announced here yesterday.
The Council of Ministers, which is the policy organ of the Community,
has decided that the two countries' bids submitted late last year and early
2012, needed more time for consideration among the five member states.
On the application by war-torn Somalia, the ministers went further,
saying the matter called for
"proper timing and wider consultations with other international
players involved in the Somalia peace initiatives".
The report of a verification team sent to Juba last July to assess
South Sudan's preparedness to join EAC
will be submitted to the next Council of Ministers meeting in November this
year, it was agreed.
However, the Council directed the EAC secretary general to submit the
application by Mogadishu to the next EAC
Heads of State Summit. The ministers insisted that much as enlarging the
Community to include Somalia may contribute to regional peace, security,
stability and development, the issue needed proper timing and deeper
consultations.
The strife-torn Somalia submitted its application to join the EAC on
February 28th this year. It was handed over to the current EAC Heads of State
chair President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya by President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
However, in considering the bid, the Council was cognizant of the
transitional nature of governance of the
Horn of Africa country under the Transitional Federal Government.
Also taken into consideration was the on-going pacification of efforts,
including the Kampala Accord regarding the Regional Political Peace Initiative
and the African Union initiatives such as the involvement of the African Union
Mission to Somalia (AMISOM).
South Sudan's application had appeared to make some progress folllowing
the dispatch of an 18 person verification team from the EAC Secretariat and the
partner states to Juba recently.
The team was in Africa's newest nation, which broke off from Sudan last
year, from July 15th to 31st July to verify the country's application.
The overall objective of the Verification exercise was to establish
the South Sudan‘s level of conformity
with the Criteria for Admission of Foreign Countries into the EAC as provided
under Article 3 of the EAC Treaty.
However, the EAC partner states; Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and
Rwanda, noted that some Partner States
still needed more time to consult on the verification report with all the key
stakeholders.
Source: The Citizen,www.thecitizen.co.tz, reported by By Zephania Ubwani in Arusha
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