Somalia also has the longest coastline of a mainland African country and will add more than 3,000 kilometres of shoreline to the bloc.
But Somalia is struggling to stem a deadly insurgency against the Islamist Al-Shabaab group, portending more security challenges for the bloc.
Somalia has been admitted as the eighth member of the East African Community on Friday November 24, 2023, just over a year after the latest entrant, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was admitted into the bloc.
Mogadishu’s admission into the bloc was approved by the region’s leaders during the 23rd ordinary summit of the heads of state held in Arusha, Tanzania, on the same day, after successful negotiations that lasted close to a year.
