What Israelis Should Understand About Somaliland

Israel was the first UN member state to recognize Somaliland since 1991. The next test is whether recognition can become an equal, practical partnership that improves lives without reducing Somaliland to a military foothold. 

When Israel recognized the Republic of Somaliland on December 26, 2025, the news traveled quickly through Hargeisa. I watched Somalilanders exchange messages of celebration, disbelief and gratitude. After 35 years of self-government without diplomatic recognition, many felt a door had opened. 

For many Israelis, Somaliland may have first appeared as a strategic location across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen. That geography matters, but it is not the whole story. Somaliland is not simply a port, an airfield or a position on a military map. It is a society that has spent decades building a state under conditions few recognized states have had to endure. 

The story did not begin in 1991

Somaliland’s sovereignty claim begins before Somalia’s collapse. The former British Somaliland Protectorate became independent on June 26, 1960. Five days later, it united with the former Italian-administered territory to create the Somali Republic, as summarized in a United Nations history of Somalia. 

The union did not deliver the equality or security Somalilanders expected. After dictatorship, war and devastating state violence in the north, Somaliland declared the restoration of its sovereignty in 1991 within the former protectorate’s borders. 

Somalia rejects that interpretation and continues to regard Somaliland as part of its territory. But this is not an ordinary case of a province suddenly deciding to leave an established state. It is a dispute arising from the attempted union of two formerly separate territories, the collapse of that union and more than three decades of separate government. 

Over those decades, Somaliland built its own administration, security institutions, currency and electoral system. Its record matters, although it should not be romanticized. The international mission observing the November 2024 elections found a well-managed and peaceful election day, an opposition victory accepted by all contestants and another peaceful transfer of power. It also identified delayed elections, limits on political participation and districts where voting could not take place. Somaliland’s democratic record is neither a myth nor a finished achievement. It is an advantage that must continually be earned. 

What recognition meant Here 

Israel’s decision was important because it acknowledged something Somalilanders had already lived: their institutions were not temporary arrangements awaiting Mogadishu’s return. During his June state visit to Israel, President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi told President Isaac Herzog that Somaliland had spent 35 years asking world leaders simply to see it. He carried the thanks of what he described as six million Somaliland Muslims. 

That matters. A Jewish state recognized an overwhelmingly Muslim country amid profound tension between Israel and much of the Muslim world. This relationship should not become a civilizational front against anyone. Properly developed, it can show that respect, national interest and cooperation can cross religious and regional divisions. 

In conversations since recognition, I have noticed two understandable questions. Israelis ask what Somaliland can offer Israel. Somalilanders ask what Israeli recognition will bring them. A lasting friendship requires both societies to ask a third question: what responsibilities do we now have toward one another? 

Somaliland is strategic—but it is not an empty chessboard 

For Israelis living with the Houthi threat, Bab el-Mandeb is no longer remote geography. Attacks on commercial shipping have shown how quickly insecurity near Yemen can disrupt the route between the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. The US Energy Information Administration reported that oil flows through Bab el-Mandeb fell by more than half during the first eight months of 2024 as vessels diverted around Africa. 

Somaliland’s coastline and the Port of Berbera therefore have genuine strategic value. Berbera is already being developed as a maritime, industrial and logistics hub, with connections toward Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa. 

But strategic value does not require Somaliland to become somebody else’s permanent military platform. In June, Somaliland’s defense minister confirmed Israeli training for police and military personnel while stating that there was no Israeli military presence and no negotiation over a base. 

That distinction should guide public discussion. Israel and Somaliland can cooperate on maritime surveillance, coast-guard training, port protection, search and rescue, counter-smuggling, fisheries enforcement and intelligence sharing without presenting Berbera as the fixed outpost of a wider regional confrontation. Berbera is not an abstraction. It is a living city, a commercial gateway and a source of employment. Security arrangements should protect that civilian value, not overshadow it. 

The partnership ordinary people should be able to see 

The most durable relationship will be visible not only to presidents, diplomats and security officials, but to farmers, doctors, teachers, students, engineers and entrepreneurs. 

Somaliland faces severe water stress, food insecurity, expensive energy and limited healthcare capacity. Israel has relevant experience in water management, dryland agriculture, irrigation, renewable energy, medical systems and digital technology. At a June business forum, Somaliland’s president identified agriculture, livestock, water, renewable energy, healthcare and cybersecurity as priority areas for Israeli investment and expertise. 

These should become measurable projects: demonstration farms, veterinary cooperation, water-recycling systems, medical training, university exchanges, technology incubators and direct commercial links. Israeli firms should encounter clear rules and credible local partners. Somaliland citizens should be able to identify jobs, skills and services created by the relationship. 

People-to-people engagement is equally important. Israeli and Somaliland universities, journalists, researchers and civic organizations should begin talking directly. Governments can establish relations in a day; societies need time to replace stereotypes with knowledge. 

Recognition creates obligations on both sides 

Israel should not treat recognition as a completed diplomatic achievement. It can help Somaliland widen its international relationships, gain direct access to institutions and persuade other governments to examine the case on its merits. Recognition becomes more secure when it produces lawful agreements, functioning embassies, trade and visible public benefit. 

Somaliland, in turn, should understand that recognition does not place it beyond scrutiny. It must protect its electoral system, media freedom and civilian institutions; widen opportunities for women and marginalized communities; manage disputes in its eastern regions peacefully; and place security agreements under proper legal and public oversight. 

These are not conditions imposed by outsiders. They are protections for the political achievement Somalilanders themselves built. 

Both governments should resist secrecy where it is unnecessary. Strategic cooperation sometimes requires confidentiality, but the purposes, legal authority and public costs of major agreements should be clear. An unequal or opaque relationship would weaken the goodwill recognition created. 

Seeing one another whole 

Israel deserves credit for acting when more cautious governments would not. But the courage of recognition must now be followed by the patience of institution-building. 

I hope Israelis will come to know Somaliland as more than a strategic coastline, and Somalilanders will come to know Israel as more than the country that recognized them. Each society has its own arguments, wounds, achievements and internal disagreements. Friendship does not require pretending otherwise. 

Recognition was the announcement. Partnership will be the record written afterward—in secure sea lanes, successful farms, functioning clinics, student exchanges, honest agreements and the trust built between two peoples who had previously known little about each other. 

Israel took the first diplomatic step. The next task is for Israelis and Somalilanders to see one another whole—and build accordingly.