After the virtual 18th Extraordinary Summit on Wednesday, Heads of State said they had authorised their respective ministers to engage with DRC further on how it can be admitted into the Community.

“The summit received and considered the report of the council on the verification mission on the admission of the DRC to join the East African Community and directed the council to expeditiously commence and conclude negotiations with DRC for admission...and report to the next summit,” the bloc said in a communiqué after the meeting chaired by Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Last month, it appeared the DRC was already a member after the Council of Ministers said they had completed its verification and recommended admission.

The EAC Council of Ministers, chaired by Adan Mohamed, Kenya’s EAC Affairs and Regional Development Cabinet Secretary, all agreed on DRC’s admission in an extraordinary meeting on November 22 in Arusha, Tanzania.

The Ministers had comprised a visitation committee which was in DRC between June 26 and July 5 to verify the country’s level of conformity to the Treaty for Establishment of the EAC.

Their nod in favor of admission for the DRC meant that the central African country would be the seventh member of the bloc after Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and South Sudan.

If DRC joins the EAC, it will bring many pluses to the bloc such as it being geographically strategic, being mineral rich and having a huge population of 80 million people who would serve as a huge market for member states.

Upon joining the EAC, the DRC will have to send legislators to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), nominate judges to the East African Court of Justice and send civil servants to the secretariat.

One of the goals of the EAC is strengthening of interaction and collaboration between member states for establishing a coherent regional structure for peace and security, in line with the EAC Protocol for Peace and Security.

However, the DRC is racked by violence and a worsening humanitarian, human rights, and security crisis.

Over 4.5 million Congolese have been displaced from their homes and 2 million children are at risk of starvation.

Tens of thousands of refugees have fled DRC into Uganda, Angola, Tanzania, and Zambia– raising the specter of increased regional instability.

So, the EAC will certainly have its work cut out for it when it comes to attempting to defuse the timebomb that has always been DRC political affairs.