EAC welcomes Security Council seat

The East African Community (EAC) has expressed optimism that Rwanda’s election to one of the rotational seats on the UN Security Council will greatly contribute to building peace in the region.Rwanda was elected by 148 member states as Africa’s representative to the non-permanent seat on the Security Council.While opening the EAC youth ambassadors’ training workshop in Arusha, Tanzania yesterday, EAC Deputy Secretary General (Political Federation) Julius Tangus Rotich said that Africa has had a long history of conflicts and that the UN seat would help address such problems.“We surely know that Rwanda will represent our interests in the best way possible,” he said.Rotich decried the emergence of conflicts mainly fuelled by mineral resources and bad governance on the continent, and called for cohesion if Africa is to be driven to first world status.“Let us make a difference by avoiding conflicts, both verbal and armed, and focus on development,” he urged the youth.He called on the participants o play their rightful role in ensuring that EAC integration continues to be a people-driven process.The workshop trainer Ambassador Jeremy Ndayiziga observed that the integration process is still hampered by lack of implementation of agreed on decisions.Article 120 (C) of the EAC Treaty provides for adoption of a common approach to involvement of the youth in the integration process through education, training and mainstreaming youth issues into EAC policies, programmes and projects as one of the strategic interventions.

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EAC welcomes Security Council seat