Israel\u2019s recent decision to recognise Somaliland as a sovereign state has sparked condemnation from several countries and regional blocs around the world. Given Somaliland\u2019s strategic location along the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, experts say Israel\u2019s move and geopolitical strategy are aimed at gaining influence, reshaping regional power dynamics, and monitoring activities in the Red Sea.<\/p>\n
On 26 December 2025, Israel became the first country in the world<\/a> to formally recognise the breakaway state of Somaliland<\/a> as an independent and sovereign state. Although Somaliland has operated as a de facto state with its own institutions, passport, currency, security forces, and a democratic system that has enjoyed peaceful transfers of power since it declared independence on 18 May 1991 after Somalia descended into civil war<\/a>, it failed to gain recognition from United Nations member states.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s December decision was celebrated<\/a> in Hargeisa, Somaliland\u2019s capital. However, Somalia still considers Somaliland a part of its territory. In an X post<\/a>, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud says Israel\u2019s declaration is an \u2018illegal aggression\u2019 and \u2018contrary to established legal and diplomatic rules.\u2019 Other countries and regional organisations, including the Arab\u00a0 League Council<\/a>, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation<\/a>, the European Union<\/a>, and the African Union<\/a> responded to Israel\u2019s decision by reaffirming Somalia\u2019s sovereignty and territorial integrity, some actors strongly rejected or even condemned the move.<\/p>\n But this is not the first time talks about recognising Somaliland are coming up. In January 2024, Ethiopia and Somaliland signed<\/a> a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which was never published, but was reportedly <\/a>intended to grant landlocked Ethiopia access to 20 kilometres of Somaliland’s coastline for 50 years and pave the way for formal recognition of Somaliland by Ethiopia.\u00a0<\/p>\n Also, in June 2025, influential Republicans in the United States introduced a bill<\/a> calling for the U.S. to recognise Somaliland \u2018as a separate [and] independent country\u2019. Additionally, the Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, in August 2025, wrote<\/a> to Donald Trump asking him to formally recognise Somaliland as an independent state. In response to Cruz\u2019s letter, Dahir Hassan, Somalia\u2019s ambassador to the U.S., warned in a statement<\/a> that \u2018any policy that weakens Somali sovereignty would only embolden extremists and threaten the stability of the entire Horn of Africa.\u2019<\/p>\n Meanwhile, following Israel\u2019s formal recognition in December 2026, Trump, in an interview with the New York Post, said he will not swiftly follow in recognising Somaliland. \u2018Does anyone know what Somaliland is, really?\u2019 Trump asked<\/a>.<\/p>\n Abdirashid Ibrahim Abdirahman<\/a>, a policy expert who has served as Somaliland\u2019s Director-General of the Ministries of Planning and National Development, Social Affairs and Labour, and currently the Director-General of the Ministry of Trade and Tourism, said mixed reactions are common \u2018when political positions are challenged\u2019. Somaliland was a British protectorate until 26 June 1960. It became independent for just five days, and then merged with the former Italian Somalia to form the Somali Republic. But the Republic plunged into a violent struggle and bloody civil war in the 1980s<\/a>, and then in 1991, Somaliland declared its independence, which Abdirahman described as a \u2018continuation of the independent state [of] 1960\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Recognition does not create a new reality; it acknowledges an existing one. Israel\u2019s decision reflects a growing tendency to assess Somaliland based on democratic governance, stability, and performance, rather than outdated assumptions,\u2019 Abdirahman told FairPlanet, adding that countries and regional blocs opposing the recognition only \u2018overlook Somaliland\u2019s historical and legal foundations.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Regional power struggles<\/p>\n Home to a little above six million people<\/a>, Somaliland is strategically located along the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, and has a 850km-long coastline<\/a> running along one of the busiest maritime corridors in the world. Considering Somaliland\u2019s proximity to Yemen, where Israel has conducted airstrikes against the Iran-backed Houthis<\/a> targets, experts, such as Ehud Yaari<\/a>, the Lafer International Fellow at The Washington Institute<\/a>, say that by recognising Somaliland, Israel will \u2018establish a diplomatic presence and possible security presence<\/a>\u2019 in the Red Sea Basin<\/a>.<\/p>\n Frank-Collins Okafor, a professor of international relations and strategic studies at Nigeria\u2019s Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka<\/a>, told FairPlanet in a phone interview that Israel\u2019s decision would effectively serve its national security interests, particularly helping Israel monitor activities and the Houthis\u2019 influence in the Red Sea. Already, the Trump administration has designated<\/a> the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation, a development that took effect on 4 March 2025.<\/p>\n \u2018Israel is trying to leverage the strategic geo-position of Somaliland. Israel needs access to the Red Sea, and Somaliland provides that access easily to Israel. And knowing the trajectory of the crisis between Israel and its neighbours, Somaliland remains a very attractive option for Israel,\u2019 Okafor explained.<\/p>\n But beyond access to the Red Sea, Okafor added that \u2018Israel is also looking for a strategic geo-position through which it can maintain its hold in the region. Somaliland is strategically positioned; from that place, you can fire, monitor, and access information on movement across the area.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n According to a November 2025 report<\/a> by Asher Lubotzky<\/a>, an analyst with the Institute for National Security Studies<\/a>, an Israeli think tank, \u2018Israel requires allies in the Red Sea region for many strategic reasons, among them the possibility of a future campaign against the Houthis [\u2026]. Somaliland is an ideal candidate for such cooperation, as it could offer Israel potential access to an operational area close to the conflict zone.\u2019<\/p>\n While Abdul-Malik al-Houthi<\/a>, the Houthis\u2019 leader, warned<\/a> that any Israeli presence in Somaliland would be considered a threat and a military target, Abdirahman argued that there is no evidence to show Israel\u2019s recognition is aimed against the Houthis, citing that Somaliland\u2019s security strategy is \u2018inward-focused\u2019 and only aimed at preserving internal stability.<\/p>\n \u2018Claims that the recognition is aimed against the Houthis or involves an Israeli military base are unfounded,\u2019 Abdirahman said. \u2018Somaliland has been explicit that its partnerships are based on sovereignty, mutual respect, and civilian cooperation \u2013 not proxy conflicts or foreign military agendas.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Addressing fears of secessionist movements springing up<\/p>\n There are growing fears that Israel\u2019s recognition of Somaliland would encourage separatist and secessionist movements on the continent \u2013 such as Biafra<\/a> in Nigeria and Ambazonia<\/a> in Cameroon \u2013 to advance their cause with the hope of being recognised internationally.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Okafor thinks otherwise. \u2018It may encourage them politically but [not] in terms of real action,\u2019 he said. \u2018Israel has a reason for recognising Somaliland and it\u2019s because of the direct benefit. The situation may not be for other secessionist groups.\u2019<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Abdirahman argued that Somaliland is \u2018not a secessionist case\u2019 but that of \u2018re-recognition\u2019, arguing that its borders align with those of the former British Protectorate, adding that Israel\u2019s recognition has effectively broken decades of diplomatic silence and that other countries will be encouraged to recognise the region as an independent state.<\/p>\n \u2018Israel\u2019s decision is significant because it breaks a long-standing diplomatic hesitation, where many states privately acknowledged Somaliland\u2019s reality but avoided being the first to formalise recognition,\u2019 he said. \u2018That silence has now been broken, creating political space for others to act.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s recent decision to recognise Somaliland as a sovereign state has sparked condemnation from several countries and regional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[208495,23,1127,19628,208496,37682,28615,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-442866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-sovereign-state","tag-america","tag-conflict","tag-engage","tag-fairplanet","tag-humanity","tag-independence","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}