South Sudan today officially becomes the sixth member of the East African Community (EAC), after a Special Envoy of President Salva Kiir submitted ‘instruments for ratification,’ at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha.
According to the EAC, Secretary General Ambassador Liberat Mfumukeko presided over the occasion of ‘Depositing of Instrument of Ratification on the accession to the treaty for the establishment of the EAC by the Republic of South Sudan.’
The world’s newest country was admitted to the regional bloc after the EAC Heads of State, at their 17 Ordinary Summit on March 2 this year, received a report from the Council of Ministers on the admission negotiations.
Then, the Summit designated Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli to sign the treaty with the GOSS on behalf of the other Presidents.
South Sudan, the newest member of the bloc has been embroiled in violence and conflict following the fallout between President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his political nemesis Riek Machar Teny.
The chaos the first broke out if December 2013 had simmered after a peace deal signed in Ethiopia in August 2015 saw Machar become First Vice President in a unity government formed in April this year. However, the peace was short-lived and on July 7, just two days shy of the country’s 5th Independence anniversary, war broke out between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar, forcing the latter to flee the country. He was also replaced as FVP by General Deng Gai, one of his former commanders.
