Somalilandsun: Somaliland, a former region of Somalia since the 1990s, has been a beacon of stability, security, and democratic governance, marked by peaceful transitions of power.
This accomplishment sharply contrasts with Somalia’s ongoing civil war and three decades of failed statehood. Since the fall of Siad Barre, its last autocratic ruler, Somalia has descended into the “Mad Max” tier of failed states, rivaled only by Afghanistan. Given the precedents of Namibia, Eritrea, and South Sudan attaining independence, why has Somaliland been denied similar recognition?
This surmation is contained in a joint article by Daniel Haile and Will Childers and published by the Modern diplomacy titled Somaliland: The Nation the World Won’t Recognize but Can’t Ignore that goes on reading
Somaliland’s success is a striking anomaly within the Horn of Africa, a region dominated by fragile and failed states. South Sudan struggles with ongoing internal conflict and tenuous peace agreements. Sudan’s descent into anarchy mirrors the protracted civil wars in Libya, Somalia, and Syria. Ethiopia grapples with escalating ethnic tensions that jeopardize its unity, evoking parallels to the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Meanwhile, Eritrea persists as a Marxist authoritarian relic, the “last of the Mohicans” among Africa’s Communist states, and Djibouti continues to bandwagon behind Eritrea’s one-man dictatorship style of authoritarian rule. Like the Balkans, the Horn of Africa is a center of gravity for instability, insecurity, and chaos. Amid this volatile landscape, Somaliland’s relative success in democratic governance makes its lack of international recognition all the more perplexing.
The hesitancy to recognize Somaliland stems from geopolitical complexities, regional power dynamics, and the broader fear of encouraging other secessionist movements. Indubitably, Somaliland meets the international requirements needed for recognition, including a permanent population, a defined territory, a stable governmental system, and the capacity to engage in international relations with other sovereign states. This last criterion is perhaps the most important for its recognition, given the growing competing regional interests from its parent state, Somalia, and the international players who are geopolitically vested in its unification. Acknowledging Somaliland’s sovereignty would challenge the status quo, forcing the international community to reconsider long-standing policies on self-determination and state recognition in one of the world’s most volatile regions.
Somalia and Somaliland: A Tale of Two Diverging Paths
Two significant factors have contributed to how Somaliland functions today as a society. Given its proximity to the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea, Somaliland has long been a breadbasket for trade and commerce, connecting early civilizations of both the Middle East and East Asia to commodities like spices and other consumer products. Secondly, early Somaliland society originated under the famed Islamic scholar Sheikh Ishaaq bin Ahmed around the 13th century, whose descendants formulated what we have today as a homogenous Isaaq clan hegemony and culture. These two geopolitical facets have long magnetized interest from international players and sparked regional upheaval.
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