Somaliland’s Re-recognition.

Somaliland’s Re-Recognition :Correcting a Distorted Narrative.

Somaliland is a self-governing, peaceful, and democratic state located in the Horn of Africa. For more than three decades, it has maintained its own government, constitution, elected institutions, security forces, and independent political life. Yet despite this longstanding reality on the ground, Somaliland is often mischaracterized as a secessionist project. This narrative is not only misleading, but historically and legally incorrect.

Somaliland first became an independent state on June 26, 1960, following the end of British colonial rule. Within days, it received recognition from more than 35 countries, including Israel, establishing it as a legitimate member of the international community. At that time, Somalia remained under Italian trusteeship, while Djibouti was still administered by France. Somaliland alone among Somali territories had achieved full sovereignty. The independent State of Somaliland was led by Prime Minister Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal. It possessed functioning state institutions, including the 33-member Legislative Assembly elected in February 1960 on a one-man one-vote basis. Egal’s first cabinet included nationally respected figures such as Garad Ali Garad Jama, Ahmed Haji Duale, Haji Yusuf Iman, and Haji Ibrahim Nur. This was not a symbolic administration, but a working democratic government.

On June 27, 1960, the Somaliland Legislative Assembly passed the Union of Somaliland and Somalia Law. This decision was not taken lightly. It followed intense debate within the elected assembly. Several members, most notably Garad Ali Garad Jama, opposed immediate union and argued for a period of independent self-governance before reconsidering any merger. Even Prime Minister Egal expressed serious reservations after visiting Mogadishu and meeting southern leaders. Aden Abdulle Osman, who later became President of the Somali Republic, reportedly advised that Somaliland should first govern itself independently. Despite these warnings, strong public pressure driven by pan-Somali sentiment led the elected leadership to proceed with union, despite the complete absence of any corresponding ratification or adoption of this law by the Somalian Leadership.

On July 1, 1960, Somaliland and Somalia voluntarily merged to form a new state known as the Somali Republic. This point is essential. Somaliland did not become a region of Somalia. Two sovereign states united to create a new political entity, yet no mutually ratified Act of Union existed at the moment the Republic was proclaimed.

In 1961, two events told the entire story of the union. On 20 July 1961, a nationwide referendum was held to ratify a new constitution for the unified Somali Republic. In Somaliland, the constitution was overwhelmingly rejected, with some regions recording a No vote of up to 72 percent, exposing the depth of popular opposition to the new political order. Later that same year, in December 1961, military officers from Somaliland attempted a coup aimed at restoring Somaliland’s independence. Although the attempt was unsuccessful, it reflected deep dissatisfaction with the union’s structure and legitimacy.

Over the following decades, political marginalization, repression, and eventually mass atrocities committed by the Somali regime against Somaliland’s civilian population destroyed any remaining legitimacy the union might have claimed. And by 1991, the Somali Republic had collapsed entirely as a state.

In that year, Somaliland did not secede from Somalia. Both former partners to the 1960 union reverted to their original sovereign identities. The political entity known as the Somali Republic had ceased to exist. Somaliland’s restoration of independence was therefore a legal reclamation of sovereignty, not an act of separation.

This distinction matters today, especially in light of recent international recognition by Israel. Such recognition should not be framed as endorsing fragmentation, but as acknowledging a historical and political reality that has existed for decades. Somaliland has demonstrated stability, democratic governance, and institutional continuity in a region often defined by conflict.

Labeling Somaliland as secessionist obscures the truth. Somaliland was a state before the union, a victim within the union, and a functioning state after the union’s collapse.

Recognition today is not the creation of a new country, but the reaffirmation of an existing one.