Somaliland is in the news lately:

The new breakaway country of Somaliland is proving to be a thorn in the side of Iran and its Houthi proxies. And here’s the interesting bit; even as negotiations with the United States are underway to try to bring an end to hostilities, Somaliland’s friendliness towards the United States and Israel, and their willingness to allow U.S. basing of military assets, including at the deep-water port of Berbera, is reportedly making Iran and the Houthis feel somewhat maladjusted.

“Iran is said to be ‘deeply threatened’ by the small African breakaway state, Somaliland, because of the potential for U.S., Israeli and Western powers to use its deep water port and airbase.

“Such moves would severely disrupt Iran’s plan to use their proxy, Yemen’s Houthi terror group, to attack Red Sea shipping.”

I’ve written this previous post about Somaliland. Since then, I’ve been wondering what makes Somaliland so different from its neighbor, Somalia, and so many other states in the region. I think the answer is probably complicated and probably contains many elements of which I’m unaware. But one is probably its different colonial history; Somaliland was a British colony and Somalia was an Italian colony. This can make a world of difference.

Here’s the history; the two areas actually diverged a long time ago:

Somaliland has been a distinct region from Somalia since the late 1800s. It was a British protectorate until 1960 (meaning a dependent territory, over which the British government exercised limited jurisdiction).

It then became independent for just five days.

At this point it merged with present-day Somalia, which was then under Italian rule, beginning a long and often violent struggle.

A rebel group, the Somali National Movement (SNM), emerged in Somaliland in the 1980s. In 1991 they declared Somaliland’s independence following the ousting of the military dictator Siad Barre, whose forces had killed tens of thousands of people during civil war along ethnic, clan-based lines.

The article also says the two regions are “culturally and ethnically distinct.” But Somaliland is also extremely poor and suffering from drought.

This is from a Somaliland website:

1 July 1960, Somaliland chose to unite with Somalia with the aim of creating a “Greater Somalia” that would unite all Somalis in five countries in the Horn of Africa including Northern Kenya, Italian Somalia, French Somaliland (Djibouti), and Eastern Ethiopia.

1961: Somalia betrayed the treaty that joined it with Somaliland by passing a different Act of Union in its National Assembly. …

The people of Somaliland had no say in the making of the constitution of the new Somali Republic. In a majority of Somaliland districts the 1961 referendum on the constitution was boycotted and the constitution rejected. One legal expert commented that the legal validity of the legislative instruments establishing the union were “questionable.”

?The early years of the union saw the steady political and economic isolation of former Somaliland. Political and military positions were awarded disproportionately to “southern” Somalis. The 1961 attempted coup by a group of highly qualified Somaliland military officers was an indication of the disenchantment with the union that Somaliland had entered into.

The whole thing led to a bloody civil war, with the Somali dictatorship killing many Somalilanders. Ultimately, though, Somaliland broke away and has been fairly stable since. It’s a completely Muslim country and yet – as I wrote in my previous post – very pro-Israel.