South Sudan to take over EAC chairship, Somalia to join at 23rd Ordinary Summit

ARUSHA – EAC Heads of State are set to convene for the 23rd Ordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State on November 24 in Arusha, Tanzania. 

The Summit will be under the theme “Accelerating Economic Recovery through Climate Action and Enhancing Food Security for Improved Livelihoods”. 

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It is during this Summit that South Sudan President Salva Kiir will take over the EAC chairship from his Burundian counterpart Evariste Ndayishimiye after serving for his one-year term. 

In preparations for the chairship, South Sudan, which was the biggest defaulter of membership fees totalling about $30 million, last week paid $7 million this week.  

The other defaulters are DRC ($14.7 million) Burundi ($15.5million), Tanzania $123,694, Rwanda ($7.3 million) and Uganda ($6.1 million).  

The summit is also expected to admit Somalia to the community after the conclusion of negotiations on August 30. 

The report of the negotiations was to be submitted to the EAC Council of Ministers for consideration before the summit makes the final decision.   

With its estimated 18 million population, Somalia becoming the eighth EAC member means expanding the community to more than 300 million potential market size.   

Among other issues to be canvassed include the security situation in Eastern DRC, inclusion of French and Kiswahili as official languages of the community, EAC common market and the status of EAC political confederation constitution.