Somalia becomes the eighth member of the regional bloc following its admission on Friday.
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.
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