Somalia seeking more support to join regional bloc

KAMPALA, Uganda (AA) – Somalia has renewed its bid to join the East African Community (EAC), a seven-nation intergovernmental bloc that the country had been seeking membership of for over 50 years.

The bloc had rejected Somalia’s application over a decade ago in March 2012, citing sporadic conflicts and weak institutions. However, with the admission of equally troubled South Sudan in 2016, Mogadishu now has high hopes.

Over half a century ago, attempts to get Somalia into the EAC at the group’s inception in 1967 had failed, as at the time it was agitating for a “Greater Somalia” and making territorial demands of its neighbors.

It was seeking both Kenya’s North Eastern Province and Ethiopia’s Ogaden Province to join its territory.

Currently, the EAC is made up of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, and Congo.

In 2017, Somalia again applied to join the EAC but has faced resistance from both Kenya and Tanzania, based on security concerns.

Somalia and Kenya share a long border, and therefore Kenya has serious security concerns whenever instability, lawlessness and terrorism raise their head in Somalia.

Kenya has faced countless violent attacks from al-Shabaab from across Somalia’s border. The two countries also have a maritime territorial water dispute at the International Court of Justice.

Public opinion in Tanzania, which lies southeast of both countries, is even more skeptical than Kenya’s about Somalia joining the EAC.

“It appears contradictory that Tanzania agreed to an EAC expansion in South Sudan but not Somalia, probably because Juba has substantial oil reserves,” Kibuuka Muhammad, a political analyst at Kampala International University said.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, however, said that Somalia has all the qualifications necessary to join the EAC, including sharing a border with one of another EAC member state and being a democratic country with a private sector-led economy. He had pledged earlier this month to back Somalia’s bid to join EAC.

Uganda has contributed to the relative stability in Somalia since 2007, although the trade volume between the two countries remains low.

Amina Hersi, a Somali businesswoman who runs several businesses in Uganda, said that joining the EAC reduces the cost of doing business, provides a huge market that all member states can exploit, and contributes to the integration and growth of economies.

Under the 1999 EAC Treaty, if Somalia joins the bloc, the country would have visa-free entry to EAC countries and be eligible for East African passports, as well as the tax-free access to EAC markets .

The combined annual economy of the EAC is estimated at more than $300 billion, with the number of people living in member states at 312 million, who travel on one passport.