South Sudan will officially become a member of the East African Community (EAC) at a ceremony in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam on Friday, April 15.

According to an EAC release, Presidents Salva Kiir Mayardit of South Sudan and Tanzania’s Dr John Pombe Joseph Magufuli, the Chairperson of the East African Community Heads of State Summit, will sign the Treaty of Accession of the Republic of South Sudan into the East African Community (EAC).
At their 17^th Ordinary Summit held on March 2, 2016 in Arusha, Tanzania, the EAC Heads of State received the report of the Council of Ministers on the negotiations for the admission of South Sudan and then designated President Magufuli to sign the Treaty of Accession.

The sixth member of the EAC, South Sudan is currently embroiled in acrimonious fallout between President Kiir and his erstwhile Vice President Dr Riek Machar Teny.

The two leaders disagreed mid December 2013 but have since gone on to sign a peace deal that is expected to return sanity to the troubled country, where tens of thousands have been killed and more than two million internally displaced.

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Opposition kingpin Dr Kizza Besigye is finally responding to social media buzz that he pledged Shs2 Billion to help Mulago National Referral hospital for the purchase of a new radiotherapy machine.

Besigye, the former Forum for Democratic Change Presidential candidate in a tweet told off state run New Vision who had broken the news – “This is total fiction!! I fully support all effort to save Mulago but I haven’t made any pledge.”

Of course, Besigye’s response to the tweet above will not be taken in good faith by Uganda’s Leading Daily who have been for long bashed for discrediting the opposition.

There has been uproar on social media with thousands set to suffer after Uganda’s only radiotherapy machine, used for treating cancer broke ‘beyond repair’ last week. The machine was donated in 1995, and has required repair work on a number of occasions over the years. Radiotherapy is a treatment involving the use of high-energy radiation to target cancerous cells.

The hospital gets 44,000 new referrals a year from Uganda, as well as from neighbouring countries including Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

An estimated 75 per cent of new referrals may need radiotherapy treatment, the unit’s Spokesperson Christine Namulindwa said.

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The East African Community (EAC) Secretary General Amb Dr Richard Sezibera has opened a two-day Regional Trade and Feed the Future Coordination Conference organized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the EAC.

The conference, taking place at the Kibo Palace Hotel in Arusha, Tanzania is aimed at enhancing collaboration and information sharing among USAID missions and Partners to improve integration, innovation and scaling up of results, and will focus on the implementation of policy priorities and sharing lessons learned from across the region and initiatives.

Amb Sezibera said that the EAC and US government have built and sustained a mutual and strategic partnership dating back to the EAC’s inception.

“I wish to acknowledge and appreciate the tremendous contribution and investments that USAID has made in advancing regional integration particularly in the EAC Region,” he said. According to Dr Sezibera, the USAID funds various programs including trade and investment, agriculture, environment, health and institutional support.

The Secretary General disclosed that in 2015, the EAC concluded a Cooperation Agreement on Trade Facilitation, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), adding that the implementation of the agreement would strengthen the capacities and enhance competitiveness of the EAC Partner States in areas of trade and agricultural development.

Mr Mathew Rees, the USAID/Kenya and East Africa/Regional Economic Integration Office Director, hailed the efforts that the Community has made in implementing policy priorities, adding that this has promoted prosperity in the region.

Present at the conference were USAID mission staff, representatives from other US Government Agencies (USDA), implementing partners as well as officials from the Partner States.

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