Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIA, ARUSHA: The Federal Republic of Somalia has become the 8th member of the East African Community (EAC) after receiving endorsement at the bloc’s Heads of State Summit on Friday.
Before Somalia’s admission to the bloc, EAC’s total trade was valued at 78,754 million US dollars, with exports at 25,004 million US dollars and imports at 53,750 million US dollars.
The founding members of the EAC are Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda.
The community expanded to a five-member bloc after the admission of Burundi and Rwanda. Later, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) joined the EAC.
Following the admission, Tanzania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Mr. January Makamba took to the social media platform to congratulate the newly admitted member, Somalia.
The Minister posted on X (formerly Twitter), saying: “Congratulations to the Federal Republic of Somalia for being admitted as the new member of the East African Community.
“Very important steps now begin for Somalia to ratify the Treaty and join/adopt/domesticate/apply EAC legislations and protocols and integrate into the structures of the Community.”
As of Friday (November 24, 2023), Somalia’s population stood at 18.37 million people, according to Worldometer.
Official EAC statistics indicate that before Somalia’s admission to the bloc, the Community had a total population of 283.7 million people.
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