Tuesday, October 17, 2017

In case N. Sudan joins the EAC fold…

MARC NKWAME in Arusha
THE letter which North Sudan wrote to the East African Community, bidding to join the now six-state regional bloc, may soon see Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and South-Sudan linked to the Red Sea.

Khartoum, apparently, had appealed to become member of the East African Community through an official application sent to Arusha back in November 2011, but the country was asked to hold on a bit, until South Sudan joined first, so that North Sudan could also have a common borderline with EAC member states.
“North Sudan’s application was turned down because among the requirements for a country to become an affiliate state of the community, is for it to share a common border with any of the already existing members,” explained Mr Simon Owaka, the EAC Senior Public Relations Officer.
“The Summit of EAC Heads of State rejected Sudan’s application because it failed largely to meet one criterion for the admission of a new partner state into the Community, namely, geographical proximity to and interdependence between the aspiring country and the partner states,” added Mr Owaka.
He was responding to this paper’s question regarding what was next for Khartoum now that it was legible to join the East African Community. According to the official, since Khartoum now shares a border with the Republic of South Sudan (RSS), it qualifies to join the East African Community but North Sudan needs to apply afresh since the situation has just changed.
But Mr Owaka remarked: “The requirement for geographical prox imity and other criteria notwithstanding, admission of a new country into the EAC is the prerogative of the Summit of Heads of State. It is also up to any country that wants to join the Community to make its own decision on the matter.
It is not the policy of the Community go out soliciting would-be members to join bloc,” he said. Should Khartoum be allowed to join the EAC fold, the Republic of Sudan will not only bring 40 million more people to the existing 170 million residents of East Africa spread across the six member states, but also link the Arusha based community to the Red Sea.
Once materialised, the ‘anticipated’ seven-member EA community is going to be separated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a length of just 355 kilometres across the Red Sea. The proposed seven-member East African Community will also have both the white and blue Nile rivers.
Mapped onto 1.9 million square kilometres of real estate, North Sudan is the third largest country on the continent after Algeria and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The six countries making up the EAC have been stitched together to form 2.5 million square kilometres and should the seventh one join the bloc, it will be the largest community in the world with 4.4 million square kilometres of land between them.
Meanwhile the East African Community and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have just reviewed the five-year Regional Development Objectives Grant Agreement to the tune of 436 billion/- which commences next year, 2018.
“The five-year US $ 194 million grant to EAC will support health, energy and environment sectors from 2018, with Dr Karen Freeman, the USAID Mission Director for Kenya and East Africa,” stated Ambassador Liberat Mfumukeko the EAC Secretary General.
Late last year, the US Government through USAID and the East African Community (EAC) launched a Regional Development Objectives Grant Agreement at the EAC headquarters here worth 436 billion/-.
Through the agreement, the USAID will contribute approximately $194 million over a five year period to shared development goals, deepening the partnership between the two organisations. About US $30 million will fund institutional strengthening within the EAC Secretariat, while the remainder will support other development and social projects.

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