East Africa | Somalia-Kenya Trade Ties Strengthen Amid Horn of Africa Tensions
Oasis Media Collective | East Africa Wire | February 13, 2026
KEY FACTS
Somalia joined the East African Community (EAC) in 2024 after an agreement in late 2023, strengthening regional integration despite ongoing security challenges.
Somalia-Kenya trade relations are expanding, highlighted by the second Somalia-Kenya & Diaspora Trade Week in Nairobi.
EAC membership provides Somalia strategic leverage, reinforcing Mogadishu’s federal authority and diplomatic backing within a structured regional bloc as it confronts Somaliland’s independence claims and external recognition efforts.
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA — Somalia’s economic relations with Kenya have significantly deepened since joining the East African Community (EAC), an intergovernmental organization in East Africa.
Beatrice Askul, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for EAC and Regional Development, anticipates commercial ties will deepen further. Delivering opening remarks at the second Somalia-Kenya & Diaspora Trade Week in Nairobi, Askul lauded the decades of economic partnership and social integration between the two countries, particularly given their shared interests in maritime trade.
Somalia’s official ascension into the EAC was agreed upon in late 2023 and formally took place in 2024. The move was seen as a pivotal step toward Mogadishu’s economic integration in the wider Horn of Africa, which had been complicated due to the country’s ongoing insecurity crisis.
Noteworthy is the backdrop of regional dynamics unfolding amid this strengthening of commercial ties. The recognition of Somaliland by Israel last December reignited tensions in the Horn, as Somalia has strived to shore up support for its claims over Somaliland. Accelerating this are Ethiopia’s efforts to regain access to the Red Sea, which led to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between it and Somaliland at the beginning of 2024, in which Addis Ababa would gain a maritime shoreline in exchange for potentially recognizing Hargeisa.
While the MoU was abandoned, analysts speculate that Israel’s recognition could potentially kickstart momentum toward Ethiopia’s recognition of Somaliland. EAC accession in turn strengthens Somalia’s diplomatic backing within a structured regional bloc, reinforcing Mogadishu’s federal authority in the face of Somaliland’s external engagements and Ethiopia’s Red Sea efforts.
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