Somalia joins East Africa regional trade bloc
Conflict-ravaged Somalia was admitted on Friday as the eighth member of the East African Community (EAC), aiming to expand free trade across the region.
“We have decided to recognize the Federal Republic of Somalia under the Treaty of Accession,” Burundi President Evaristo Ndayishimiye, the outgoing EAC chair, said at the group’s summit in Tanzania.
Somalia, whose President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud attended the summit, joined Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
The EAC, headquartered in Arusha, the Tanzanian town where the summit was held, was founded in 2000 and works to facilitate trade by eliminating tariffs between member countries.
A common market was established in 2010.
The addition of the fragile Horn of Africa country of 17 million people will expand the EAC market to more than 300 million people.
Somalia also has the longest coastline of any mainland African country, and the move will add more than 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles) of coastline to the region, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean through the Indian Ocean to the Gulf of Aden.
But Somalia is struggling to contain a deadly insurgency against Islamist al-Shabaab, which could pose further security challenges for Somalia.
After making significant progress, attacks against al-Qaeda affiliates in Somalia have stalled for months, raising concerns about the government’s ability to quell the 16-year-old insurgency.
Source: guardian.ng