Somalia hopes to join the East Africa Community

The Somali government hosted the East Africa Community verification committee in Mogadishu for the last two weeks. The committee held different meetings with government officials and members of the society. As their official stay in Mogadishu ends, the Banaadir authority honored them last night with a farewell celebration.

Speaking during the official dinner on Friday, Somali Special Envoy to East Africa, Abdisalam Hadliye, expressed a strong wish to accept the government’s bid to join the East Africa Community. He said at the ceremony, “Somalia wishes to be welcomed and accepted its proposal to ask a member of the EAC market since Somalia fulfilled all the requirements needed, and the verification committee is here to check what we presented.”

Moreover, the Somali minister of foreign affairs, Abshir Cumar Haruuse, invasive Somalia, will be a member of the EAC market, saying that the Somalia administration pays a lot of effort to accept its bid and benchmark all the compliance to meet the standards.

“For almost two weeks, a delegation from the African Community was with us. During their stay, the representatives from the EAC member countries showed their support and desire to get real information and the reality of our country. surely, they will find out what they came for,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Abshir Haruse.

A team of experts from the partner states was there in Somalia from January 25 to February 4, 2023. The team assessed Somalia’s development strategies and plans in critical areas of collaboration, including infrastructure, energy, education and science, peace and security, and international cooperation.

EAC states are Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, and the latest entrant, the Democratic Republic of Congo, which joined in April last year.

Somalia applied to join the bloc two times before, but this is the first time a verification team of experts visited the country to determine if Somalia filled the requirements to fully join the EAC.