African Union accepts South Sudan as new member state
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By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
July 28, 2011 (ADDIS ABABA) – Newly-independent South Sudan has joined
the African Union (AU) as 54th member state of the pan-African bloc.
JPEG - 30 kb
A member of the South Sudan delegation (Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth) dances
after the flag of South Sudan was raised outside the United Nations on
14 July 2011 - (Getty)
In a statement, it said the Republic of South Sudan has become part of
the AU family of member states after AU member countries, including
North Sudan, gave a majority vote in favour of admission.
"The Commission has received the requisite number of written
communications from 33 Member States, including the Government of the
Sudan, supporting the admission of South Sudan to the African Union as
the 54th union member state," the AU said on Thursday.
The membership grant has made South Sudan the first nation to be
admitted to the AU in almost two decades since Ethiopia’s former
province, Eritrea, gained independence in 1993 and joined the
continental body.
“A ceremony will be organized as soon as possible with the Chairperson
of the AU Commission for the deposit by the Government of South Sudan
of the instrument of accession of the Constitutive Act of the African
Union”, AU added.
According to the AU statement, a communication has already been sent
to the Republic of the South Sudan, all member states, permanent
observers and international organisations informing them of the
membership of South Sudan in the AU.
South Sudan became an independent state on 9 July after a plebiscite,
agreed as part of a 2005 North-South peace deal, resulted in a
landslide vote in favour of secession from Sudan.
Many issues between North and South Sudan are still to be resolved
including the fate of the contested region of Abyei, the negotiations
over which, the AU has been involved in from the start.
Representatives from the governments of North and South Sudan are due
to meet later this week in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to
resume post-secession negotiations on a number of pending issues such
as citizenship, border demarcation, currency and oil-revenue sharing
among others.
Mediated by former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, the head of
the AU’s high level panel on Sudan, the meeting in Addis Ababa will be
the first for North and South Sudan after the latter officially
proclaimed independence three weeks ago. On July 14, the UN General
Assembly unanimously approved South Sudan as 193rd member state to the
UN.
(ST)
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