EAC deducts debt for South Sudan

By Ben Musanje

29^th July 2022

The East African Community Heads of State Summit, sitting in Arusha, Tanzania have resolved to forgive South Sudan a half of the annual fees owed to the regional body.

In 2021, the Inter -Governmental Authority on Development –IGAD, an East African trading and security bloc of eight nations suspended South Sudan from the regional bloc due to failure to pay annual contributions to the body months after the East African Community had issued a suspension warning.

The First Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for East African Affairs, Rebecca Kadaga says that it was discovered that South Sudan needed help and the summit resolved to forego part of the debt to enable the new regional state to start meeting the payments.

Oil-dependent South Sudan is still undergoing struggles to revive its economy battered by years of conflict since December 2013.

Meanwhile, EAC hopes to start making approvals of Somalia’s application to join the bloc by the end of December 2022 after the country has submitted the entire requirement as the Minister for East African Affairs, Rebecca Kadaga says.