The Republic of Tunisia and the Federal Republic of
Somalia were admitted as members of the Common Market for Eastern
and Southern Africa (COMESA) during the COMESA Heads of States and
Governments Summit held on 18 and 19 July 2018 in Lusaka,
Zambia.
COMESA now has 21-member states - Burundi, Comoros, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya,
Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia,
Sudan, Swaziland, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
COMESA is a regional trade bloc aimed at establishing a free
trade area, amongst other things. COMESA's vision is to
"be a fully integrated, internationally competitive regional
economic community with high standards of living for all its people
ready to merge into an African Economic Community" while its
mission is to "endeavour to achieve sustainable economic and
social progress in all Member States through increased co-operation
and integration in all fields of