Somalia Joins East Africa’s political Block

Sudan Events – Sumaya Sayed

Somalia will officially join the Community of East African Countries (EAC) today, November 24.2023, as the eighth member of the regional group that currently includes Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Membership will be sanctioned within the framework of the extraordinary summit which opened today in Arusha, Tanzania, in the presence of the representative authorities and which will be an opportunity for the community to address some issues of common interest, primarily that of security. The EAC has already been on the front line in conflict situations, as happened only a year ago in the east of the DRC, where – shortly after joining in July 2022 – President Felix Tshisekedi requested and obtained the deployment of a military force to support the local army against armed groups.