Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Vincent Biruta has commended the decision of the 21st Ordinary Summit of Heads of State of East African Community (EAC) to make French one of its official languages. Biruta made the observation on the occasion of the International Francophonie Day, which was celebrated globally on March 2020, 2021, under the theme “Francophone women, resilient women”. This will help accelerate regional integration, he said through a Twitter post as he expressed approval of the decision. The 21st Ordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State among other things considered a report on the status of implementation of its directive to undertake a study on the modalities of including French as a language of the Community, in addition to English and Kiswahili. The summit, which was held via video conference on February 27, 2021, adopted French as one of the official languages of the community along with English and Kiswahili and directed the council to expedite the implementation modalities of the directive. In addition, the summit considered an application by the DR Congo to join EAC and directed the council to expeditiously undertake a verification mission. The EAC is home to 177 million citizens, of which over 22% is urban population, according to estimates from the block. So far, countries known to have citizens who widely speak French in the region are Burundi, Rwanda and DR Cong which is the prospective member of EAC. There is an estimated 300 million French speakers in the 88 states and governments of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), spread across five continents. La Francophonie is an institutional mechanism dedicated to promoting French and implementing political, educational, economic and cultural cooperation within the 88 states and governments of OIF. Furthermore, Biruta reiterated “the full support of Rwanda for the OIF in its mission to embody a Francophonie of action, driven by digital technology, gender equality and youth.” Meanwhile, the Rwandan Parliament held a virtual event to celebrate the International Day of La Francophonie. The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Donatille Mukabalisa, said that parliament joined the rest with the rest of the countries of the Francophone world in celebrating the values that bind them as a community. She underscored that among the values of La Francophonie, there is cultural and linguistic diversity.
