Somalia has been admitted into the East Africa's regional bloc, EAC, becoming the group's eighth member on Friday.
The decision was taken at the bloc's extraordinary summit in Arsusha, Tanzania, where heads of state of the member countries deliberated on a number of issues affecting the region.
''Somalia shares borders with one EAC Partner State, namely Kenya, and has strong historical, linguistic, economic and socio-cultural links with all the EAC Partner States,'' the East Africa Community said in a statement ahead of the decision.
The country ''has the longest national coastline of over 3,000 kms in Africa, linking Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, which the region will tap into to increase intra-regional trade,'' it added.
Somalia now joins Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Democratic Republic Congo and United Republic of Tanzania in the bloc.
The EAC launched a verification process to assess Somalia’s fitness to join the Community.
The objective of the verification was ''to establish the country’s level of conformity with the criteria for admitting foreign countries as provided in the Treaty for the establishment of the EAC,'' the bloc said.
What is EAC?
East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organisation of with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. EAC is one of several regional bodies within Africa.
It was established in 1999 to facilitate East Africa regional integration as well as economic and political development.
Before Somalia joined on Friday, the combined population of the member states of EA was 283.7 million with over 30% being in urban areas.
The countries cover a land area of 4.8 million square kilometres and a combined Gross Domestic Product of $ 305.3 billion.
Mutual benefits
The Treaty establishing EAC was signed on November 30, 1999 and entered into force July 7, 2000 following its ratification by the original three Partner States - Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
The bloc's membership was later expanded to seven before Somalia became the eighth.
The group is aimed at ensuring mutual benefit in various areas including political, economic and social spheres.
''At the moment, the regional integration process is in full swing as reflected by the encouraging progress of the East African Customs Union, the establishment of the Common Market in 2010 and the implementation of the East African Monetary Union Protocol,'' EAC says.
