Hargeisa, Somalia — Somaliland’s president has acknowledged that wider diplomatic recognition is unlikely to come quickly after Israel became the first country to recognise the breakaway region in northern Somalia.
“We recognise that widespread international recognition won’t occur overnight,” Abdullahi wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion essay published this week.
But he used the article to deliver his clearest and strongest defence yet of the Dec. 26 agreement with Israel, a step that has rattled regional alignments in the Horn of Africa and pushed Somaliland’s statehood campaign back into the centre of a widening geopolitical contest.
Somaliland declared independence in 1991 after Somalia’s central government collapsed and has since run its own elections, currency, security forces and institutions.
It has operated as a de facto state for more than three decades, but until now, Israel became the first UN member state to formally recognise it.
Somalia’s federal government in Mogadishu has denounced the pact as an “illegal violation of sovereignty,” but Abdullahi argued the relationship rests on more than strategy. He described it as a moral choice shaped by history and shared trauma.
First mover
“This recognition didn’t arise from diplomatic calculation alone,” he wrote, linking Israel’s national story to what he described as a “systematic campaign of extermination” against Somalilanders under the late Somali dictator Siad Barre in the late 1980s.
Abdullahi wrote that Israel was among the few countries that spoke up at the United Nations in 1990 as Hargeisa came under bombardment, an episode he said killed an estimated 200,000 civilians and left the city in ruins.
He cited an instruction he attributed to Barre’s forces — “kill all but the crows” — and argued that to this day Somalilanders still see that period as the basis for a bond that goes beyond today’s politics.
In his essay, Abdullahi casts Israel’s recognition as the decisive “first mover” step other capitals have avoided for years, even when privately sympathetic.
He wrote that many countries “in Africa and beyond” see Somaliland’s claim as morally and legally grounded but nonetheless have held back while waiting for a state willing to absorb the political cost of breaking with the prevailing international position.
Israel has now taken that step, he argued, and as a result forced others to confront their hesitation.
Still, Abdullahi signalled that Hargeisa expects a sustained campaign of persuasion rather than quick diplomatic dominoes, warning that recognition will take time.
Analysts have linked the agreement to Israel’s broader push to build partnerships along the Red Sea corridor, where security concerns and outside competition have intensified.
Abdullahi leaned into that strategic framing, presenting Somaliland as a stable actor in a region where many governments struggle to project authority. He contrasted Somaliland’s relative stability with Somalia’s crisis, where the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab insurgency remains a persistent threat.
Security rationale
Abdullahi highlighted Somaliland’s 460 miles of coastline along the Gulf of Aden, describing it as a key route for global commerce.
He pointed to the UK-trained coast guard and its anti-piracy record as evidence that Somaliland can deliver the security outcomes Western partners want.
“Our capabilities… align directly with Israeli and broader Western security interests,” he wrote.
He also warned of shifting alignments in the Horn, saying that China and Turkey are expanding their presence in Somalia, while Somaliland has chosen a different orientation.
He portrayed Israel’s recognition as a counterweight that could, in turn, deepen ties with partners focused on maritime security near major shipping lanes.
Abdullahi added an economic argument, tying recognition to investment and development.
He cited Dubai-based DP World’s $442 million investment in modernising the Port of Berbera, which Somaliland promotes as a regional logistics hub linking Gulf markets, East Africa and Ethiopia.
The port, he argued, strengthens Somaliland’s bid to operate as a self-sustaining economy and at the same time reduces reliance on Mogadishu-controlled routes.
He said Israeli expertise in agriculture, technology and maritime services could accelerate development and turn recognition into tangible gains, thereby shifting the relationship from symbolism to practical cooperation.
Regional pushback
The recognition has heightened tensions in a region shaped by proxy rivalries. Somalia has called for emergency consultations with the African Union to mobilise pressure against the deal.
Abdullahi dismissed Mogadishu’s objections and said Somaliland has “waited patiently” while the world overlooked its elections and institutions.
He pointed to Somaliland’s relationship with Taiwan as proof, he argued, that the territory can operate internationally even without broad recognition.
He said Israel’s move could break a longstanding taboo that has discouraged African states from formalising ties.
Abdullahi invoked a 2005 African Union fact-finding mission, which concluded that Somaliland’s case should be assessed from an objective historical perspective and a moral standpoint, and should not be dismissed out of fear of “opening a Pandora’s Box” of border disputes across the continent.
Abdullahi said opening Somaliland’s first official embassy in Israel would rank among the proudest moments of his tenure. “Now, Israel has taken this bold step,” he wrote. “We are confident that others will follow.”
