<P> A team was formed to assess South Sudan's bid; however, in April 2014, the nation requested a delay in the admissions process, presumably due to ongoing internal conflict . </P> <P> South Sudan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, claimed publicly in October 2015 that, following evaluations and meetings of a special technical committee in May, June, August, September and October, the committee has recommended that South Sudan be allowed to join the East African Community . Those recommendations, however, had not been released to the public . It was reported that South Sudan could be admitted as early as November 2015 when the heads of East African States had their summit meeting . </P> <P> South Sudan was eventually approved for membership to the bloc in March 2016, and signed a treaty of accession in April 2016 . It had six months to ratify the agreement, which it did on 5 September, at which point it formally acceded to the community . It does not yet participate to the same extent as the other members . </P> <P> The geographical region encompassed by the EAC covers an area of 2,467,202 square kilometres (952,592 sq mi), with a combined population of about 173,583,000 . </P>

When did south sudan join the east african community
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