The 21st Ordinary Meeting of the Summit of East African Community Heads of State had been scheduled for Saturday, 29th February 2020 in Arusha, Tanzania has been postponed to a later date.
The postponement of the Summit comes in the wake of a request by the Republic of South Sudan, which said it was currently in the process of forming a transitional government bringing together the government and opposition groups, East African Community Headquarters said in a statement on 22nd February 2020.
Also postponed is the 41st Extra-Ordinary Meeting of the EAC Council of Ministers that was scheduled to take place from 25th to 27th February 2020 at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha. The 41st Council was supposed to precede and make preparations for the Summit meeting.
Rwanda’s Minister of State in charge of the EAC, Amb. Olivier J. P. Nduhungirehe communicated the decision to postpone the two meetings to EAC Secretary General, Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko, in a letter dated 21st February 2020.
“After consultation with the Chair of the Summit of EAC Heads of State, I have the honour to both inform and request you to notify Partner States that the above-mentioned meetings (21st Summit of EAC Heads of State and 41st Extraordinary Council of Ministers) have been postponed to a later date due to the request of the Republic of South Sudan. A new date will be communicated later after consultations with the EAC Partner States,” said Amb. Nduhungirehe.
In requesting for the postponement, Mr. Mou Mou Athian Kuol, South Sudan’s Under Secretary for EAC Affairs in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and EAC Affairs, said that the formation of the new Transitional Government of National Unity (ToGONU) would mean a lot of changes in the government and probably affect its organisational structure.
“With that in mind, the Hon. Minister, Paul Mayom Akech, has directed me to notify the EAC Secretariat of this challenge and that South Sudan will not be able to take part. Given the significance of the meeting, the Republic of South Sudan is requesting a postponement until mid-March 2020. This will allow the newly-formed government to continue with business as usual,” wrote Mr. Mou Mou to the Secretary-General.
Decision making at the EAC is by consensus with a quorum being constituted by the presence of all Partner States. The absence of one Partner State would, therefore, mean that there would be no quorum for the Summit meeting as per the Rules of Procedure of the Summit, Rule 11.
South Sudan officially became the sixth member of the East African Community (EAC) when it signed treaties to join the regional bloc.
An EAC member country is expected to adhere to principles of good governance, democracy, the rule of law and observance of human rights and social justice. South Sudan has struggled with all these issues since the outbreak of the war in December 2013.
The country has since then made several formal and informal agreements that have ended up collapsing. In the recent development, President Salva Kiir and his opposition rival Riek Machar agreed to a power-sharing deal as before where Kiir will remain President while Machar will share power as First Vice-President.
A key component of the agreement is the protection of opposition forces and members. The other agreement is integrating Kiir’s troops and the forces of Machar into a national army.
The 21st Summit is also expected to discuss the admission of the Democratic Republic of Congo into the club. DRC formally applied for admission to the six-member East African Community (EAC) last year after various behind-the-scenes negotiations. In June last year, the Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi wrote to his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, who is the current chairman of the EAC, seeking to join the Community whose member countries are Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan.
“This request follows the ever-increasing trade between the economic players of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and those of the states of the Community,” he wrote on a letter dated June 8.
The desire of his government, President Tshisekedi observed, is to join the Community of regional leaders “so that we can work together for the development of our respective countries and stabilize this part of Africa.”
In terms of trade, DRC accounts for about six percent of total exports from the EAC countries.
DRC has a small coastline on the western side in Kinshasa and largely depends on the ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam for its imports. Mr. Tshisekedi is the first Congolese leader to take power in a peaceful transition and has promised to bring stability to the country.
Somalia’s application for admission was frozen due to instability in the country.
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