EDITORIAL: Carefully consider Somalia case
The relevant authorities should give serious consideration to the application by Somalia to join the East African Community (EAC). The EAC secretary general, Liberat Mfumukeko, revealed this week that a delegation would be dispatched to the war-torn Horn of Africa nation to verify and assess the level of that country’s readiness for admission to the regional economic bloc.
Earlier, Somalia’s ambassador to Tanzania, Mohamed Abdi, was in Arusha to push for his country’s admission to the six-member regional bloc bent on regional integration.
Indeed, it has been a long time since Somalia first applied to join the EAC in 2013. But that application stalled basically because of security concerns.
Despite a few positive developments here and there since then, the situation in Somalia is still unstable. Already, the EAC is battling to address the problems in Burundi and South Sudan, whose impact is being felt in neighbouring countries. However, there is still hope for Somalia, after the new government of President Mohammed Abdullahi pledged a new era of peace and stability. Perhaps this is the most appropriate time for the EAC to play the role of lobbying the African Union and the international community to stabilise Somalia.
