Somalia was admitted into the hashtag#EastAfricanCommunity (EAC) on Friday as the eighth member of the bloc as it seeks to expand free trade across the region.The entry of the fragile hashtag#HornofAfrica nation, which has a hashtag#population of 17 million, will boost the hashtag#EAC market to more than 300 million people.

“We have decided to admit the Federal Republic of Somalia under the treaty of accession,” outgoing hashtag#EAC chair, Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye, said at a summit of the grouping in hashtag#Tanzania.

hashtag#Somalia ?? – whose President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was at the summit – joined hashtag#Burundi ??, hashtag#DRCongo ??, hashtag#Kenya ??, hashtag#Rwanda ??, hashtag#SouthSudan ??, hashtag#Tanzania ?? and hashtag#Uganda ?? in the regional bloc.

“Let us all embrace this new chapter in our history,” Mohamud’s chief economic adviser said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “This moment is not just a culmination of our aspirations but a beacon of hope for a future full with possibilities and opportunities.”

The EAC, based in the Tanzanian town of hashtag#Arusha where the summit was taking place, was founded in 2000 and works to encourage trade by removing customs duties between member states.

It established a common market in 2010.

Excluding Somalia, combined EAC countries covered a land area of 4.8 million sq kilometres (1.8 million sq miles) and had a combined gross domestic product of $305bn, according to the bloc’s website. Total EAC trade was $78.75bn in 2022, it said.

The last member the group admitted before Somalia was the hashtag#DRC, in April 2022.