Portal:Somaliland

Introduction

Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is a de facto state in the Horn of Africa. It is recognised only by Israel with the international community considering it territory of the Somalia. It is located on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the south and west, and Somalia to the east. Its claimed territory has an area of 176,120 square kilometres (68,000 sq mi), with approximately 6.2 million people as of 2024. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa.

Various Somali Muslim kingdoms were established in the area during the early Islamic period, including in the 14th to 15th centuries the Zeila-based Adal Sultanate. In the early modern period, successor states to the Adal Sultanate emerged, including the Isaaq Sultanate, which was established in the middle of the 18th century. In the late 19th century, the United Kingdom signed agreements with various clans in the area, establishing the Somaliland Protectorate, which was formally granted independence by the United Kingdom as the State of Somaliland on 26 June 1960. Five days later, the State of Somaliland voluntarily united with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somalia) to form the Somali Republic. The union of the two states proved problematic early on, and in response to the harsh policies enacted by Somalia's Barre regime against the main clan family in Somaliland, the Isaaq, shortly after the conclusion of the disastrous Ogaden War, a 10-year war of independence concluded with the declaration of Somaliland's independence in 1991. The Government of Somaliland regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland.

Since 1991, the territory has been governed by democratically elected governments that seek international recognition as the government of the Republic of Somaliland. The central government maintains informal ties with some foreign governments, which have sent delegations to Hargeisa; Somaliland hosts representative offices from several countries, including Ethiopia and Taiwan.

On 26 December 2025, Israel became the first and only United Nations member state to formally recognise Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state. It is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, an advocacy group whose members consist of indigenous peoples, minorities, and unrecognised or occupied territories. Following the Las Anod conflict that emerged in 2022, Somaliland lost control of a significant portion of its eastern territory to pro-unionist forces who established the SSC-Khatumo administration. Somalia has not recognised the independence of Somaliland and regards the area to be one of its federal member states. (Full article...)

More about Somaliland...

Selected article -

The Somali Civil War (Somali: Dagaalkii Sokeeye ee Soomaaliya; Arabic: الحرب الأهلية الصومالية al-ḥarb al-’ahliyya aṣ-ṣūmāliyya) is an ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, the Somali Armed Forces began engaging in combat against various armed rebel groups, including the Somali Salvation Democratic Front in the northeast, the Somali National Movement in the Somaliland War of Independence in the northwest, and the United Somali Congress in the south. The clan-based armed opposition groups overthrew the Barre government in 1991.

Various armed factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum and turmoil that followed, particularly in the south. In 1990–92, customary law temporarily collapsed, and factional fighting proliferated. In the absence of a central government, Somalia became a "failed state". This precipitated the arrival of UNOSOM I UN military observers in July 1992, followed by the larger UNITAF and UNOSOM II missions. Following an armed conflict between Somali insurgents and UNOSOM II troops during 1993, the UN withdrew from Somalia in 1995. After the central government's collapse and the withdrawal of UN forces, there was some return to customary and religious law in most regions. In 1991 and 1998, two autonomous regional governments were also established in the northern part of the country: Somaliland and Puntland. In the south Islamic Sharia courts began proliferating in response to lawlessness. This led to a relative decrease in the intensity of the fighting, with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute removing Somalia from its list of major armed conflicts for 1997 and 1998. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Did you know

...that the Laas Geel cave paintings, located near Hargeisa, are 4,000–11,000 years old?

General images -

The following are images from various Somaliland-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A monument modeled after the MiG-17 aircraft used in the 1988 bombing of Burao by Somalia, commemorating the defense against the attack (from History of Somaliland)
Image 2In 2020, Somaliland's Minister of Foreign Affairs meeting with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen. (from History of Somaliland)
Image 3The maternity hospital founded by Edna Adan Ismail in 2002 (from History of Somaliland)
Image 4War-damaged houses in Hargeisa, a capital of Somaliland (1991). (from History of Somaliland)
Image 5Map of the Somaliland Protectorate showing the territory of the Haud region (shaded in gray) under British Somaliland administration. (from History of Somaliland)
Image 6left British Somaliland Protectorate stamp featuring the tomb of Sheikh Isaaq at Mait. (from History of Somaliland)
Image 7Presidential decree ratifying the Somaliland constitution by Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal (from History of Somaliland)
Image 85 May resolution of the Burao grand conference. At the second national meeting on 18 May, the SNM Central Committee, with the support of a meeting of elders representing the major clans in the Northern Regions, declared the restoration of the Republic of Somaliland in the territory of the former British Somaliland protectorate and formed a government for the self-declared state. (from History of Somaliland)
Image 9Exhumed skeletal remains of victims of the Isaaq genocide found from a mass grave site located in Berbera, Somaliland. (from History of Somaliland)
Image 10Neolithic rock art at the Laas Geel complex depicting a long-horned cow. (from History of Somaliland)
Image 11Ruins of the Adal Sultanate in Zeila, Awdal. (from History of Somaliland)
Image 12Fighters of the Somali National Movement (SNM) in the 1980s (from History of Somaliland)
Image 13In 2014, a money changer in the capital, Hargeisa. Large stacks of banknotes are prepared due to inflation. (from History of Somaliland)
Image 14Somali soldiers confront the British Navy.. (from History of Somaliland)
Image 15Newly elected President Ibrahim Egal (wearing the garland) and former President Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur (center right) (from History of Somaliland)
Image 16Shaláw Sabaean writing, Sanaag. (from History of Somaliland)
Image 17Hargeisa street, 2005 (from History of Somaliland)
Image 18Sculptures have the cobra emblem (uraeus) that is wedged in the personages headdress Discover in Berbera, Somaliland (from History of Somaliland)
Image 19Supposed location around the Red Sea and major travel routes by land and sea (from History of Somaliland)
Image 20A destroyed M47 Patton in Somaliland, left behind wrecked from the Somali Civil War. (from History of Somaliland)
Image 21Isaaq clan leaders Abdillahi Deria (right) and Abdulrahman Deria (left) in London in 1955 petitioning against the transfer of the Haud. (from History of Somaliland)
Image 22Dahabshil Bank Building, 2014 (from History of Somaliland)
Image 23In 2021, a woman casts her vote in the House of Representatives election. (from History of Somaliland)
Image 2419th century German map showing Sultan Nur's Domain in central Somaliland (from History of Somaliland)
Image 25A painting made around 1900 by an artist from Ethiopia, depicting the death of Cristóvão da Gama and the death of Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi. (from History of Somaliland)
Image 26Michael Mariano speaking in New York in 1955 to protest the transfer of the Somali-inhabited Haud region to Ethiopia. (from History of Somaliland)

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