Republic of Somaliland: A case for international recognition
Author’s Note: This article was originally written in July 2008 for a student magazine and cross-posted to Substack in May 2023. There is a brief note at the bottom of the article updating the reader about new developments in the intervening 15 years.
Amidst the chaos in the horn of Africa— as typified by the depiction of the Somalia crisis in the movie, Black Hawk Down— is an oasis of calm, the still unrecognized Republic of Somaliland.
Despite notable progress made in building peace, security and constitutional democracy within its de facto borders, Somaliland has failed to gain international recognition following its May 1991 declaration of independence from the failed state, Somalia.
The unrecognized republic, which is a bicameral parliamentary democracy, has it own airline, currency, security forces and functional public institutions.
Though Somaliland has been praised by several nations across the globe for building a democracy from scratch and avoiding the civil strife that has engulfed its southern neighbour, Somalia, no other country in the world has been brave enough to cast the first stone by recognizing the state.
By default, African nations tend to be hostile to secessionist states for fear of encouraging other separatists to unravel those other national borders, which were fixed arbitrarily by former colonial powers; arbitrary boundaries that often divided people of the same ethnicity into separate countries while trapping people of completely different ethnicities within them, with disastrous consequences.
But Somaliland is more than just another breakaway region of an African nation. Its unique history, as a formerly UN-recognized country for a few days back in 1960, was enough to cause division within the ranks of African countries that are usually unanimous on the issue of separatism.
In July 1960, two separate Somali colonies were granted independence by different colonial powers within five days of one another. British Somaliland was the first to gain independence from the UK as the State of Somaliland with Hargesia as its capital city. Five days later, Italian Somaliland was granted independence by Italy as Somalia Republic with Mogadishu as its capital. Both won international recognition as sovereign states.
In an act which it now regrets, Somaliland merged with Somalia Republic to form a new Somalian nation, which was meant to have a federal system of government. After the merger, the territories of the former Somaliland and Somalia Republic automatically became the northwestern and southern regions of the newly formed nation.
But the union of the two ethnic Somali states was fraught with problems ranging from misunderstandings of the terms of the merger to the incompatible administrative, legal and economic systems which they had inherited from their different colonial masters.
The former Republic of Somaliland was disadvantaged from the start— the numerically superior South (i.e. the former Somalia Republic) not only retained the capital city of Mogadishu, it also dominated both the legislature and the cabinet of the unitary government of the merged entity.
In a 1961 referendum, north-westerners (i.e. Somalilanders) called unsuccessfully for the federal system of government as agreed upon at the 1960 merger talks.
The sharp disagreements between the two regions continued until the 1969 military coup that brought the southern General Said Barre to power. His socialist regime was initially popular until the late 1970s when government policies started favouring members of his southern Darood clan.
Student protests in the northwest were brutally crushed in 1978, and a few years later, the rebel SNM guerilla force emerged in the region to resist the repression. The central government declared an all out war on 6 April 1981 and unleashed a wave of mass killings, incarcerations, torture and the aerial and land bombardment of the rebellious region. By 1989, other rebel groups had sprung up in the previously peaceful South as well to oppose the government.
In January 1991, the fighting on several fronts overstretched the central government and caused its implosion. The fall of the central government also resulted in the collapse the Somali Democratic Republic, the unitary socialist nation-state established by General Said Barre shortly after the 1969 military coup d'état.
Following the disappearance of the national government, southern rebels entered Mogadishu and turned on each other over the question of who should control the capital city and the country at large.
Meanwhile, SNM guerillas in the northwestern region bowed to popular demand and declared the re-establishment of the independent Republic of Somaliland as the rest of Somalia fell into anarchy.
Since then, Somaliland has managed to establish a functional multi-party democracy, with successive competitive elections described as free and fair by UN observers, and lobbied hard for international recognition.
Fearing accusations of imperialism, sympathetic western countries such as the UK, Norway, Denmark and USA with unofficial ties to Somaliland, have stated that they will leave the issue of recognition for the African Union (AU) to resolve. This stance also happens to be the position of Russia, United Arab Emirates and Turkey, all of which maintain informal ties with the unrecognized republic. That stance is, of course, difficult given the aforementioned divisions in the ranks of the AU member-states.
Neigbouring Ethiopia, the regional power, is sympathetic and also has unofficial economic and political ties with Somaliland, but has withheld recognition in order not to upset the ineffective Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia, which it helped set up along with other East African nations. The TFG, which mainly consists of ex-south Somali warlords, was set up in 2004 to govern lawless Somalia and does not recognize Somaliland’s independence.
Djibouti, Senegal, Ghana, Guinea, Rwanda and South Africa are also sympathetic to Somaliland’s cause, but are unwilling to break ranks with other African countries such as Egypt, Kenya and Sudan, which are strongly opposed to its recognition. The official AU position is that “Somaliland must seek the consent of Somalia first.”
But Somalia is in no position to respond to any such request. From 1991 to 2003, it had no central government.
The TFG which came into existence in 2004 was unable to extend its power beyond a small town outside Mogadishu until the Islamists that ran the capital city and most of Somalia were routed by American-backed Ethiopian forces in December 2006.
Though the TFG is now in control of Mogadishu and most of Somalia, its battle against Islamist insurgency and the AU’s focus on finding lasting peace for the war-torn country has put Somaliland’s case on the backburner of African affairs.
Three years ago, in December 2005, the AU came close to resolving the Somaliland issue after a commission, set up to look into the persistent requests for recognition, declared that Somaliland’s case for independence was unique and urged the AU to approach the issue “with an open mind.” But opposing countries, led by Egypt, succeeded in getting the AU to shelve the matter for the time being.
Somaliland’s efforts to get the AU to discuss its request have been consistently frustrated. Recent events in Somalia have now placed the case for Somaliland’s recognition at the bottom of the AU’s list of priorities.
The International Crisis Group, which has advised on conflicts in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kosovo, D.R. Congo, etc., has warned that the unresolved issue of Somaliland’s status could generate yet another crisis for the continent, if Somalia, currently battling Islamist rebels within the borders it controls, decides to move northwest to force a reunion with Somaliland. It has advised the AU to approach the issue in a mature manner in order to prevent a future conflict. The question is whether African leaders are listening.
**KEY UPDATE : In the 15 years that has elapsed since this article was first published, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) , which acted as the provisional governing authority of Somalia has been replaced by an elected Federal Government, which continues to claim the territory of the unrecognized Republic of Somaliland. For its own part, the central government of Somaliland continues to assert its independence and rejects the territorial claims of the Federal Government of Somalia.**
THE END
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