Israel has become the first country to formally recognise Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland as an independent nation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel intended to immediately expand cooperation in agriculture, health, and technology. Somaliland’s president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, called the development “a historic moment”.
Recognition by Israel could encourage other nations to follow suit, increasing the region’s diplomatic credentials and access to international markets.
Somalia’s prime minister, Hamza Abdi Barre, said his country categorically and unequivocally rejected what he called a deliberate attack by Israel on its sovereignty.
Abdullahi said in a statement that Somaliland would join the Abraham Accords, in what he called a step toward regional and global peace.
Somaliland was committed to building partnerships, boosting mutual prosperity and promoting stability across the Middle East and Africa, he added.
The decision has been condemned by the foreign ministers of Somalia, Egypt, Turkey and Djibouti, who in a statement affirmed their “total rejection” of Israel’s announcement.
The two countries had agreed to establish “full diplomatic ties, which will include the appointment of ambassadors and the opening of embassies”, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a statement on X.
“I have instructed my ministry to act immediately to institutionalise ties between the two countries across a wide range of fields,” he said.
Somaliland has a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden, and has its own money, passports and police force. Born in 1991 after a war of independence against former dictator General Siad Barre, it has grappled with decades of isolation ever since.
With a population of almost six million, the self-proclaimed republic has recently been at the centre of several regional disputes involving Somalia, Ethiopia and Egypt.
Last year, an agreement between landlocked Ethiopia and Somaliland to lease a stretch of coastline for a port and military base angered Somalia.
Source: BBC
