East African Community admits South Sudan, Rejects Burundi’s Chairmanship Bid

The East African Community (EAC) has rejected Burundi’s bid to chair the east Africa bloc for 2016. South Sudan however is the newest addition to the EAC.

As leaders of the EAC met in Arusha in northern Tanzania, one man was conspicuously missing. Burundi's president, Pierre Nkurunziza, did not attend even though his country was bidding for the chairmanship of the bloc.

The last time Nkurunziza attended an EAC summit, rebels staged a failed coup in his absence. The group, however, rejected Burundi's bid for this yearly chairmanship.

The tenure of Tanzania's President John Magufuli was extended into a second year.

South Sudan is the newest addition to a group, which was previously made up of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. South Sudan gained its independence from the Republic of Sudan in mid-2011.

However, only two years later a political split threw the country back into a civil war. Leaders from nearly all EAC countries have played a role in the peace talks between South Sudan's president Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar.

The two rival parties have now agreed upon a transitional government, which is still waiting to come into force.

"South Sudan's membership of EAC is not strictly on economic benefits but has historical significance. EAC is where we belong," South Sudan's vice president James Wani Igga proclaimed. He said his country had wanted to be part of East Africa even before its independence.