The East Africa Community Heads of State summit, held in Nairobi on Saturday (December 1st) decided to defer decisions on the application for membership by Somalia and the Republic of South Sudan. The Republic of South Sudan applied for membership of the regional economic bloc after achieving independence last year; Somalia submitted its application in February this year. The regional Heads of State summit in Bujumbura last April decided to defer a decision on Somalia’s application until this meeting. Now it has decided to defer a decision once again, but the Summit also decided that a ministerial committee should visit Somalia and meet Somali leaders to look into the issue. A communiqué after the summit also noted the Heads of State Summit had deferred the decision on South Sudan’s application. The Heads of State considered the verification report which had assessed South Sudan’s eligibility in meeting the criteria needed to join the regional bloc. It then decided to refer the matter to the Council of Ministers to conduct further discussions with the Republic of South Sudan. The EAC treaty sets out details of adherence to universally accepted principles of good governance, democracy, rule of law, observance of human rights and social justice as requirements to join the East African Community. A country applying for membership also has to have geographical proximity with regional states and is expected to be able to contribute towards regional integration.

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* Originally published on A Week in the Horn – Dec. 7, 2012 issue, titled “East African Community defers decisions on South Sudan and Somalia”. Items from A Week in the Horn are re-published here with a permission to do so. You may republish it with attribution and no modification to its contents.

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