ARUSHA (Tanzania), Dec 3 (NNN-DAILYNEWS) — THE East African Community (EAC) Heads of State have pledged to strengthen their coordinated approach to restoring peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The coordinated approach which intends to join efforts of the EAC and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) seeks cessation of escalating hostilities in Eastern DRC.
“Due to the complexities of the parallel processes, the summit called for a coordinated and consolidation of the various initiatives, specifically, the Luanda Process and the EAC led Nairobi Process to be merged into one and run jointly,” read the 24th Ordinary Summit of the East African Community Heads of State’s communiqué Monday.
According to the communiqué, the summit also underscored the need for a joint meeting between SADC and EAC to discuss modalities in consideration of the widespread impact of the situation in DRC on the latter.
The EAC secretariat was directed to follow up the process for implementation not later than April 30 next year, read the communiqué.
In another development, the summit approved and signed the instrument of adoption of amendments to article 137 of the Treat for Establishment of EAC to incorporate Kiswahili and French as official languages of the organs and institutions of the community in addition to English and article 132 (4) of the treat to reflect and facilitate the implementation of the financing formula agreed by the summit.
Also, the summit received the progress report of the council of ministers for the period Nov 25, 2023 to Nov 29, 2024 in which, the Heads of State commended the community’s ministerial body for its accomplishments made in implementing programmes and projects.
Going forward, the council was directed to expedite implementation of the roadmap for implementing the financing formula and report progress to the 25th meeting of the summit.
Also, the council was directed to finalise the schedule of sanctions to be implemented alongside the financing formula.
The summit also directed the Republic of Rwanda, the Republic of South Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, DRC and the Federal Republic of Somalia to conclude the national consultations on the EAC Political Confederation Constitution by June 30, 2025.
Also, the summit received the report of the retreat ministers responsible for foreign affairs and EAC affairs and directed the council to work with partner states to develop regional guidelines for multidimensional peace operation to guide future regional security support operations.
Moreover, communiqué noted that that the council was directed to expedite the conclusion of the EAC Mutual Defence to facilitate peace support operations undertaken by the community and implementation of the EAC Counter Terrorism Strategy as well as reporting progress to the 25th meeting of the summit.
The theme of this year’s summit was “Promote Trade, Sustainable Development, Pace and Security for improved livelihoods,”
The summit commended East Africans for commemorating 25 years of regional integration and emphasised the importance of strengthening trade relations, fostering peace and security, youth and women empowerment to engage in commercial production and enhancing environment protection including green energy and embracing digital transformation as key drivers of the community sustainable development.
The summit decided Kenya to be the chairperson of the community and Somali as rapporteur for the year 2024/2025. — NNN-DAILYNEWS
