Sudan aspires to join EAC: ambassador

Sudan has expressed interest and willingness to join the East African Community (EAC), local media reported on Wednesday.

Local English broadsheet The Guardian quoted Dar es Salaam- based Sudanese Ambassador El-Mughira Ali Omer as saying that his country had developed the idea of joining the EAC after signing the Naivasha Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005.

"We nursed the idea of joining the EAC, especially after the signing of the Naivasha Comprehensive Peace Agreement," said the ambassador.

The envoy said that the land-locked southern Sudan can improve trade and interaction through its accession into the now five- country regional economic integration bloc.

The ambassador said that if Sudan would be admitted into the EAC, the construction of an oil pipeline could link southern Sudan with Mombassa of Kenya.

For now, none of the five EAC members of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda boasts of as a rich oil reserve as Sudan does.

Source: Xinhua