Just days after ratifying the Accession to the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community, South Sudan has today deposited the qualified instrument of ratification to the Secretary General Ambassador Liberat Mfumukeko at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.

The depositing of the instrument with the EAC Secretary General means South Sudan is now a new family member of the bloc with full and equal rights, obligations and privileges.

‘’I would, therefore, like to seize this opportunity to commend President Salva Kiir, the Government and the entire people of the Republic of South Sudan for their tireless efforts and commitment that enabled them to achieve this important milestone,” the Secretary General said at a brief ceremony attended by the Chair of the EAC Council of Ministers and Tanzania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Amb Dr Augustine Mahiga.

Others present included Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of East African Community, Labour and Social Protection, Phyllis Kandie; Burundi’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Alain Aime Nyamitwe, and the one in the Office of the President responsible for EAC Affairs, Hon. Leontine Nzeyimana; Permanent Secretaries/ Principal Secretaries from Partner States, EAC Deputy Secretaries Generals, Counsel to the Community and members of media.

Those who represented South Sudan included Secretary General, South Sudan EAC Secretariat, Mou Mou Athian Kuol, South Sudan Ambassador to Tanzania, Mariano Deng Ngor, Director of East African Community, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Amb. Agnes Oswaha and Legal Counsel, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, South Sudan, Lawrence Loro Kamilo.

Amb. Mfumukeko disclosed  that now that South Sudan have taken a step further, the Secretariat will seek guidance from the Council of Ministers on developing a detailed roadmap for integrating the war-ravaged country into the ongoing EAC projects and programmes.

“We shall be informing the Leardership in Juba of every step we shall be taking in this regard”.

The EAC Chief called upon the media to fully participate in integrating the Republic of South Sudan in the EAC by reporting objectively on the issues at hand.

He said EAC attaches great importance to the role of the Media in promoting awareness, discourse and involvement of the broad range of stakeholders in the East African regional integration process.

On his part, the Presidential Envoy of South Sudan Aggrey Tisa Sabuni, said membership in EAC means that the country will never be the same again.

“The EAC integration process is important for South Sudan. Currently, the EAC is the most advanced Regional bloc on the African continent,” Mr Sabuni said, adding: “deep regional integration programmes that South Sudan shall soon undertake are likely to enhance overall EAC competitiveness which will lead to higher economic growth, employment creation and poverty reduction”.

South Sudan applied to join the EAC on June 10, 2011, and was admitted to the bloc on March March 2 this year during the 17^th Ordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State.

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The United Nations-coordinated appeals and refugee response plans as covered by the Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) require US$21.7 billion to meet the needs of 95.4 million people affected by humanitarian crises in 40 countries.

Global requirements are adjusted throughout the year as response plans are revised, both upwards and downwards, to reflect up-to-date needs, and the
current decrease has resulted from revisions of plans for Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Yemen, a release by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, reflecting the status as of August 31, indicates.

The Ethiopia Humanitarian Requirements Document (HRD) now requests US$1.6 billion to respond to the needs of 9.7 million people affected by El Niño, while in Afghanistan there is a US$54 million reduction in the overall ask from US$393 to $339 million.

The reductions reflect funding constraints impacting the ability to implement programmes, realistic absorption capacity and capability to deliver in the coming six months. Humanitarian actors have reached 2.1 million people with aid. The HRP for Yemen now requires US$1.6 billion to respond to the needs of 12.6 million people. Some 6.9 million people have received assistance in 22 Governorates.
Funding for the Syria Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) and the Syria Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP) is at 34 per cent and 47 per cent respectively.

Although the London conference saw record-level pledges, disbursements are urgently required to allow organizations to scale up or sustain operations in Syria and the region. With the highly prioritised Iraq 2016 Humanitarian Response Plan only 53 per cent funded, operational partners have urgently appealed for additional $284 million to prepare for the humanitarian impact of the operation to retake Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The 2016 humanitarian response plans (HRPs) for Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon contain components to respond to the Lake Chad Basin crisis and have appealed for $559 million to scale up their operations. The Cadre Harmonisé report for August notes that 65,000 people in North-East Nigeria are experiencing famine, more than 1 million people are in emergency, while about 3.3 million are in crisis. Please see icon overleaf for information on other urgent funding needs.

Additionally, El Niño’s impact on people’s food security and agricultural livelihoods, will continue through the next growing season, with the impact on health, nutrition, water and sanitation likely to grow throughout the year.
Eastern and Southern Africa are the most affected regions with the effects likely to last well into 2017. Some 23 countries have presented costed response plans with total requirements of $5 billion.

On 16 August, the Emergency Relief Coordinator released $50 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for severely underfunded aid operations in Yemen, the Democratic Republic Congo, Chad, Central African Republic, Rwanda and Eritrea. The latest rapid response allocations include aid for Syrian refugees in Jordan and an allocation to Niger. CERF has allocated a total of $291 million in 2016 thus far. The Fund has received $345 million for 2016 as of the end of August, and continues to anticipate a funding gap of $50 million on the $450 million annual funding target.

Meanwhile, 18 Member States have contributed $465 million in 2016. OCHA manages 18 CBPFs in the world’s worst crises, where these funds have allocated $339 million to aid agencies: 19 per cent to national NGOs; 47 per cent to international NGOs; 34 per cent to UN agencies. According to UNOCHA, CBPFs continue to be one of the largest direct sources of funding to local and national frontline responders.

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