The Community of East African States (EAC), a regional organization with a single market permitting the unrestricted movement of people and goods, announced Somalia’s official admission on Friday.
Eight nations currently make up the East African Community (EAC), which has its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. These nations are Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In 2022, the DRC became the final member of the regional organization.
Évariste Ndayishimiye, the head of state of Burundi, who is also the outgoing president of the East African Community, announced that the member countries have “decided to admit the Federal Republic of Somalia under the accession treaty”.
Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud, the president of Somalia, was present when the announcement was made from Arusha and conveyed his “deep gratitude”. “This moment is not just the culmination of an aspiration, but a glimmer of hope for a future full of possibilities and opportunities” , he stated.
One of the objectives of the East Asian Community (EAC), which was established in 2000, is to promote trade between its member states by eliminating customs duties. In 2010, it created a common market.
According to the organization’s website, the EAC countries—solely Somalia excluded—have a combined gross domestic product of 305 billion dollars and a total area of 4.8 million square kilometers.
Somalia, home to about 17 million people, has the longest coastline in Africa (more than 3,000 km), which increases the potential market for the EAC to over 300 million people.
For more than 16 years, the Somali government has been battling the insurgency of the radical Islamist Shebab, a group connected to al-Qaeda, with assistance from the international community. To combat the rebels in Somalia, the African Union has sent troops from Kenya and Uganda.
The Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank located in Mogadishu, describes Somalia’s admission into the EAC as “a decisive step in the bloc’s expansion into East Africa,” but it also highlights how “Somalia’s poor record on governance, human rights, and the rule of law” may make integration into the bloc more difficult.
