The Lower House of the Federal Parliament of Somalia has on Saturday approved and ratified the Treaty of Accession to the East African Community that was signed between Somalia and the regional bloc on 15th December 2023.
The ratification of the treaty heralds the successful completion of Somalia’s membership in to the bloc complying with 6-month grace period given for it to deposit its instruments of ratification with the Secretary General of the EAC.
Somalia was officially 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.
The Horn of Africa Nation’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.
Somalia first expressed interest in joining the EAC in 2012 but was declined due to its to political and security turmoil internal resulting from decades of civil war that had engulfed the country following the ouster of the military regime of former late President Mohamed Siyad Barre In 1991.
