EAC rejects Sudan membership bid

Sudan’s efforts to join the East African Economic Community setback on Wednesday after the East African Community (EAC) Summit rejected Khartoum’s request for membership, in the African leaders' meeting in Bujumbura, the Burundi capital. According to the summit’s decision, South Sudan’s application is to be deferred to the EAC’s council of ministers to decide whether it will undergo further scrutiny to decide whether it meets the benchmarks. The East African Community (EAC) is an intergovernmental organisation comprising the five east African countries Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. Uganda is the most opposed to Sudan’s membership, as it accuses Khartoum of backing The Lord's Resistance Army LRA, which spread chaos in northern Uganda. Howevere, the accusation does not hold much weight any longer as Sudan no longer borders of Uganda after the secession of South Sudan. In the meantime, Sudan’s president Omer Al-Bashir on Wednesday accused unnamed “foreign quarters” of seeking to isolate Sudan from its African milieu. In another context, Minister of Oil in South Sudan Stephen Dhieu stated that Juba will take legal actions against Sudan, and any company that was involved in the oil that was taken over by Sudan. He also pointed out that "any sale of the Southern oil which was taken over by the North is illegal, and Juba will not accept that.” His statement came in response to Khartoum’s assertions on Thursday and Friday, in the words of more than one official, the most prominent being the Vice-President, that it will take its share of the Southern oil after talks collapsed in Addis Ababa.