Epiphanie Kabushemeye Ntamwana, Director General in charge of multilateral relations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said the use of French inside the East African Community is progressing. The Ministry in charge of EAC affairs in collaboration with the French Embassy in Burundi has submitted the draft project to EAC Secretary. “We are at the stage of studying financial and legal impact of the project on the community”, she said this during the celebration of the International Francophonie Day on 20 March.
Epiphanie Kabushemeye Ntamwana: “The study of the financial and legal impact on the use of French within EAC is progressing”.
She also said Burundi has introduced the use of the French language in the regional community because of its importance. “It will allow Burundi officials to clearly present the country’s concerns to EAC in French language they master as most of them followed their academic curricula in French language”, she said. An EAC ministerial council that will focus on the issue has been postponed to April 2019.
Guy-Michel Mfatiye, delegate to the International organization of Francophonie and OIF National correspondent in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said about 300 million people throughout the world spoke French in 2018 thanks to the demographic growth and education. “It’s the second worldwide language taught in schools, something which constitutes the Francophonie motive”, he said.
According to the Treaty for the establishment of the East African community, article 137, the official language of the community is English while Kiswahili is considered as a lingua franca in the community.
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