The President of Somalia, H.E Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Thursday evening arrived in Uganda to attend the East African Community (EAC) summit slated for today December 15, 2023 at State House, Entebbe.
On arrival at Entebbe International Airport, the President was received by the Minister of State for Defence, Hon. Jacob Oboth Oboth, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) Director of Personnel and Administration, Brig Gen. Julius Bagonza and the Deputy Commissioner General of Uganda Prisons Service, Mr. Samuel Akena.
Also, at the airport to receive H.E Mohamud was Somalia’s Charge de Affairs Mr. Abdilatif Ali.
Somalia was officially admitted into the regional trade bloc, as the eighth member as it seeks to expand free trade across the region. Others members are Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
The meeting which is expected to be presided over by the EAC Chairperson, President Salva Kiir, will see Somalia sign the EAC treaty of Accession.
The admission of the fragile Horn of Africa nation with a population of 17 million will boost the EAC market to more than 300 million people.
Somalia also has the longest coastline of a mainland African country and will add more than 3,000 kilometres (1,800 miles) of shoreline to the bloc, stretching it from the Atlantic through the Indian Ocean up to the Gulf of Aden.
