Team to assess Somalia’s readiness to join EAC bloc
Members of the East Africa Community team which will assess Somalia’s readiness to access the country’s readiness to join the bloc. Photo | Courtesy
What you need to know:
- Somalia applied to join the EAC in 2012 but its application dragged through the bureaucracy until July 2022 when the meeting of Heads of State directed the Council of Ministers to embark on a verification mission to support the application.
A verification team from the East African Community (EAC) secretariat is in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, to assess the country’s readiness to join the economic bloc as the eighth member state.
The team of experts is led by Burundi’s Tiri Marie Rose and the counsel to the bloc, Anthony Kafumbe.
Somalia applied to join the EAC in 2012 but its application dragged through the bureaucracy until July 2022 when the meeting of Heads of State directed the Council of Ministers to embark on a verification mission to support the application.
Following this directive, the EAC Secretary General, Dr Peter Mathuki, appointed the verification team now in Mogadishu to assess the country’s development strategies and plans in key areas of collaboration including infrastructure, energy, education and science, peace and security, and international cooperation.
Dr Mathuki said on Wednesday the technical team will engage with various quarters of the Somali government and a resultant report will be presented to the EAC Council of Ministers who will table it for consideration by the 23rd Summit of EAC Heads of State scheduled for next month.
“The verification team is set to make findings relating to the institutional frameworks in place, legal frameworks; policies, strategies, projects and programmes, areas of cooperation with other EAC partner states and expectations from membership,” he said.
The team will also review the status of Somalia in international law and establish the country’s readiness to join the EAC Customs Union, Common Market Protocol, Monetary Union and ongoing political confederation Constitutional Framework.
Somalia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Abshir Omar expressed enthusiasm for the team set to assess Somalia’s readiness to join the bloc, saying Somalia will benefit greatly because of the free movement of people from Somalia and other countries without a visa, if they are fully in the EAC.
Dr Abdusalam Om, the presidential special envoy of the Federal Republic of Somalia, said Somalia’s application to join the EAC is the top most priority for President Hassan Sheik Muhamud, who was voted back in office in May 2022.
