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Recognition demands reciprocity. That means expelling Turkey, regulating banks, and ending corruption.
History remembers bold moments: Anwar Sadat’s 1977 flight to Jerusalem. Nixon’s opening to China. De Klerk releasing Mandela. These weren’t just diplomatic breakthroughs—they were paradigm shifts that changed what seemed possible.
President Abdirahman “Irro” Mohamed Abdullahi just delivered Somaliland’s defining moment.
When he disappeared into Dubai and Tel Aviv for an extended overseas trip marked by complete radio silence, the nation wondered. Last month, when he returned with Israel’s historic recognition of the Republic of Somaliland, it became clear what the silence had been for. In our December 28 editorial, “The Quiet Diplomat Delivers for Somaliland,” we offered a mea culpa for questioning what turned out to be the most important diplomatic mission in Somaliland’s history.
We were right. But we were also only half right.
The bold gesture secured recognition and made the Republic of Somaliland the most strategic country in the region. What comes next determines whether recognition becomes statehood.
Recognition Is Leverage—But Only If Used
Israel’s recognition validates three decades of democratic governance and regional stability. It proves the impossible is merely difficult. But recognition alone builds nothing. It opens a door—Somaliland must walk through it.
The public deserves euphoria. After thirty-four years, they’ve earned the right to celebrate. But while flags wave in the streets, someone must be sweating in government offices—planning how to transform a diplomatic breakthrough into institutional reform, how to convert recognition into leverage, how to dismantle the architecture of dependency that served Somaliland as an unrecognized entity but will cripple it as a recognized state.
More recognition is coming. The dominoes are lined up. The question isn’t whether additional countries will follow Israel’s lead. The question is whether Somaliland will be ready when they do.
Recognition Is Binary, Not Cumulative
Let’s address the inevitable deflection: “It’s only Israel.”
Only?
Israel is a nuclear power. A top-15 global economy. The technological backbone of American defense systems. The state that turned desert into agricultural innovation, isolation into diplomatic leverage, and existential threats into strategic dominance.
Some countries are recognized by 100+ states and remain irrelevant. Others are recognized by a handful and reshape regions. Kosovo has roughly 100 recognitions and no UN seat. Palestine has 140+ and remains contested. Taiwan has fewer than 15 and manufactures the semiconductors that power the world.
Taiwan is the model not just because of its economy, but because it weaponized its indispensability. The world cannot function without Taiwanese chips, so the world ensures Taiwan survives. Somaliland must become equally indispensable to Red Sea security.
Recognition is not a headcount. It’s a threshold. And Israel—with its intelligence apparatus, its military-industrial integration, its diplomatic reach across Washington, Brussels, and beyond—is not “only” anything.
At the UN Security Council emergency session convened to condemn Somaliland’s recognition, US Deputy Ambassador Tammy Bruce cut through the hypocrisy: “Earlier this year, several countries, including members of this Council, made a unilateral decision to recognise a non-existent Palestinian state, and yet no emergency meeting was called to express this Council’s outrage.”
Israel’s Deputy UN Ambassador Jonathan Miller was equally direct: “Some countries are allowed to recognize a state that does not exist. Israel, by contrast, is denied the right to recognize a very real state.”
The Republic of Somaliland is no longer an unrecognized country. That status is binary, not cumulative. One serious recognition beats fifty symbolic ones. And Israel is nothing if not serious.
Readiness requires confronting three uncomfortable truths about how Somaliland has operated for three decades—and making decisions that will anger every entrenched interest that benefits from the status quo.
First Truth: Reciprocity Is Non-Negotiable
Somaliland is now a recognized country. It must behave like one.
Djibouti’s decision to close its Hargeisa office immediately after Israeli recognition was not an insult—it was honesty. Djibouti doesn’t recognize Somaliland, so it removed itself to continue its other subversion activities in the open. Clean. Clear. Reciprocal.
Now consider the others: The “UK Office in Hargeisa”—subsidiary of their Mogadishu embassy. The “Turkish Consulate in Hargeisa.” And many others. Diplomatic facades that maintain presence without granting recognition.
Turkey requires immediate attention.
Last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan gave a revealing interview to TRT Haber in which he openly celebrated Turkey’s multi-year campaign to prevent Somaliland’s international recognition. This wasn’t a leak. This wasn’t speculation. This was the Turkish Foreign Minister publicly boasting about blocking Somaliland recognition as a diplomatic achievement.
His exact words: “We have negotiated extensively with the West and made a serious effort to prevent any other country from recognizing [Somaliland]. Thankfully, none of the countries that were initially expected to recognize the entity did so.”
Fidan went further. He revealed that Turkey killed what he called the “Somaliland project” two years ago—preventing Ethiopia from recognizing Somaliland by mediating between Addis Ababa and Mogadishu. He described Turkish diplomats working “behind the scenes to lock in commitments” from fence-sitting countries, framing recognition-prevention as “high-stakes diplomatic containment” necessary for “regional survival.”
He called Israeli recognition “the gravest setback” Somaliland could face and described it as “serious humiliation” and “punishment” for a Muslim society.
Now here’s the punchline: Turkey said all of this while operating a consulate in Hargeisa.
Think about that. Turkey maintains diplomatic presence on Somaliland soil—enjoying Somaliland’s stability, benefiting from Somaliland’s security, accessing Somaliland’s territory—while simultaneously:
- Lobbying Western capitals to deny Somaliland recognition
- Boasting about successfully preventing recognition “two years ago”
- Describing recognition-prevention as a matter of “regional survival”
- Calling Israeli recognition a form of “punishment” and “humiliation”
This is not diplomacy. This is hostile intelligence operations disguised as consular services. Turkey’s “consulate” exists to monitor Somaliland, influence Somaliland’s politics, and undermine Somaliland’s sovereignty—all while denying Somaliland the very legitimacy that consular presence implies.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs must act. Issue a clear directive: any foreign mission in Hargeisa not accredited to the Republic of Somaliland has 72 hours to regularize their status or be declared persona non grata. Turkey has publicly declared itself hostile to Somaliland’s recognition. They’ve admitted to actively working against Somaliland’s sovereignty. They’ve celebrated blocking recognition as a diplomatic victory.
Why would Somaliland allow a foreign power that views its recognition as an existential threat to maintain operations on its territory?
Your business is 800 kilometers south, Minister Fidan. Pack your bags.
Somaliland tolerated this because unrecognized entities take what they can get. But that calculus just changed.
Recognized countries operate on reciprocity. You want an embassy in Hargeisa? Recognize Somaliland and we’ll open one in your capital. You want intelligence sharing, security cooperation, trade agreements? Excellent—let’s negotiate nation-to-nation, not patron-to-client.
Countries maintaining “offices” in Hargeisa while operating embassies in Mogadishu face an uncomfortable legal reality: they’re in the wrong country.
Their diplomatic credentials come from Somalia. Their immunity—if it exists—is granted by a government with no jurisdiction in Somaliland. They are foreign nationals conducting activities in a recognized sovereign state without accreditation from that state.
The implications are severe. No diplomatic immunity. No Vienna Convention protections. No special status under international law. Just foreign nationals operating without authorization on sovereign territory.
Want to operate here? Recognize Somaliland and obtain proper accreditation from Hargeisa. Don’t want to recognize? Your business is 800 kilometers south.
The diplomatic fiction they’ve enjoyed for three decades ended with Israeli recognition. Time to pick: accreditation or departure.
Every foreign office that refuses recognition while maintaining operations sends a message to potential recognizing states: “We don’t actually believe Somaliland is a country—we’re just here for access.” That undermines legitimacy with every nation calculating whether to follow Israel’s lead.
The era of diplomatic ambiguity is over. Recognize us, or leave. The status quo is no longer acceptable.
Second Truth: Developmental Colonialism Must End
The UN and its agencies have captured Somaliland’s government institutions—and they operate under the fiction that Somaliland is “Somalia.”
Walk into the Ministry of Education. The de facto authority isn’t the minister—it’s UNICEF. Health policy? WHO Somalia. Agriculture? FAO Somalia. They all brand themselves as operating in “Somalia,” coordinating through Mogadishu, treating Somaliland as a regional field office.
The results speak for themselves: dry pit latrines emblazoned with a dozen NGO logos. World Handwashing Day celebrations while schools crumble. Workshops on “capacity building” that build nothing but PowerPoint presentations. Meanwhile, the underlying systems remain weak, dependent, and incapable of functioning without external life support.
This is not development. This is developmental colonialism—foreign agencies making decisions, setting priorities, controlling budgets while Somaliland’s institutions become bureaucratic appendages incapable of functioning independently.
The “Somaliland Special Arrangement”
The World Bank and EU operate through what’s formally known as the “Somaliland Special Arrangement”: funds allocated to Mogadishu, a fraction earmarked for Somaliland, disbursement controlled by Somalia’s federal government.
Somaliland gets scraps. Somalia gets control.
For years, projects like the “Somali Electricity Sector Recovery Project” operated in Hargeisa under Somalia branding. Somaliland would swap “Somali” for “Somaliland” on local signs—same funding, same Mogadishu coordination, different billboard.
The same cringe-worthy gymnastics applied to foreign diplomats. Ambassadors to Somalia would arrive in Hargeisa, and Somaliland would quietly omit “Somalia” from their titles for local consumption. A face-saving exercise that fooled no one but avoided the contradiction.
Thank God that practice has largely stopped. But the World Bank and EU? Still playing pretend through the Special Arrangement.
The EU maintains significant presence here while actively opposing Israeli recognition. If the EU doesn’t recognize Somaliland’s sovereignty—and opposes those who do—what exactly is it doing here?
The answer: renegotiate or withdraw. Somaliland should demand direct bilateral programming outside Mogadishu frameworks, Somaliland-branded projects with Somaliland-controlled implementation, 24-month transition timelines for all “Special Arrangement” structures, and recognition of sovereignty as prerequisite for continued operations.
Will this be painful? Yes. Will donors complain? Loudly.
But here’s the secret the development industry doesn’t want you to know: Nations are not built by NGOs and UN agencies. The proof? Taiwan. Taiwan was isolated, unrecognized, left to fend for itself—and it built world-class institutions, a thriving economy, and a technological sector that manufactures the chips powering half the world’s electronics.
Somaliland has spent thirty-three years praised for “managing its affairs” while simultaneously having those affairs managed for it by foreign agencies that don’t recognize its existence.
The training wheels must come off.
Third Truth: Institutional Rot Will Kill Recognition’s Promise
Somaliland’s internal house is catastrophically disordered. The international community praised Somaliland’s governance compared to regional chaos, but the bar was so low it’s practically subterranean. Israeli recognition changes the equation—Somaliland now faces standards of statehood, not the patronizing soft bigotry of low expectations.
Those standards reveal uncomfortable realities.
The Corruption Cartel
As previously documented by this paper: Central Bank governors with diploma mill degrees. Presidential directors general holding fake credentials. Credible allegations of rigged World Bank procurement. Ministry budgets routed through private accounts with minimal oversight.
This is not incompetence. This is greed on wheels—public officials whose primary focus is ensuring they get their fill before they’re sacked. Two houses. A few SUVs. Perhaps a villa in Turkey. That’s the endgame. Not national development. Not institutional capacity building. Personal enrichment.
Here’s why this matters internationally: The United States has the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Israel—Somaliland’s newest partner—has Section 291A of the Penal Law criminalizing foreign bribery with seven-year prison terms. When Israeli and American businesses look at Somaliland and see systemic corruption, they cannot engage without legal liability.
Recognition opens doors. But those doors lead nowhere if corruption greets them on the other side.
The Extractive Bureaucracy
And it’s not just corruption. It’s the bureaucratic nightmare designed to vacuum money from the public’s pockets.
Try obtaining a business license in Somaliland. The process includes a mandatory step through the Attorney General’s office—a requirement so convoluted it almost seems the government is anti-business, intentionally placing hurdles to discourage entrepreneurship. But the unfortunate truth is simpler and more sinister: many processes are designed to ensure as many hands touch the process and assess a fee—legitimate or plain graft—to expedite things for you.
Getting a driver’s license? Nightmare. Registering a vehicle? Nightmare. Starting a business? Nightmare. Every single workflow is structured to maximize touchpoints, maximize fees, maximize opportunities for someone to demand a bribe.
This isn’t governance. This is extractive bureaucracy—a system designed not to deliver services but to extract rents.
Governments worldwide have streamlined these processes. Somaliland must do the same: digitize, simplify, eliminate corruption vectors. No serious investor tolerates systems where starting a business requires paying off half a dozen officials for paperwork stamps.
The Unregulated Financial Cartel
And then there are the business conglomerates that have grown so fat the government is indebted to them.
Let’s talk about Dahabshiil and Salama Bank—the twin pillars of Somaliland’s unregulated financial sector.
These are not banks in the traditional sense. They operate as monopolistic conglomerates that forced Islamic banking into the constitution only to charge exorbitant “halal” fees on collateralized loans. They act as the bank, the mortgage company, the builder that built the house. They’ll even finance your vehicle and your cellphone.
They’ve created digital payment systems operating in regulatory gray zones, without clear statutory oversight or independent supervision—free to move money and customer information between Somalia and Somaliland without meaningful accountability.
Let that sink in. Customer data—including financial records, transaction histories, and personal information—flows freely between Somaliland and Somalia with zero regulatory oversight.
For a nation asserting sovereignty, this is a catastrophic vulnerability. Somalia is, at best, indifferent to Somaliland’s sovereignty and, at worst, actively hostile. Allowing Somaliland’s financial data to be exfiltrated and potentially used by a hostile state is a national security disaster.
But more importantly, it makes Somaliland economically radioactive. Do you think Israeli banks will clear transactions with Dahabshiil or Salama if they cannot see who the end beneficiary is? Recognition brings Somaliland into the global financial grid—and the global grid has rules. AML/CFT compliance isn’t optional. Somaliland’s banks are currently unplayable. If we want to trade with Tel Aviv, New York, and London, the era of the unregulated hawala conglomerate must end.
This is not an indictment of individuals—it’s a regulatory failure. Somaliland has operated with extreme deregulation, abdicating governing responsibility. That must end.
Required reforms: AML/CFT compliance frameworks, data localization mandating Somaliland-only storage, independent financial sector supervision, and consumer protection against predatory practices.
Will this anger powerful business interests? Absolutely. Will Dahabshiil and Salama Bank push back? Guaranteed. But here’s the reality: recognized countries regulate their financial sectors. Countries that let foreign companies and local cartels operate without constraint remain perpetually vulnerable.
The Talent Hemorrhage
Somaliland has extraordinary human capital—diaspora professionals and domestic NGO veterans who manage complex donor-funded programs, coordinate multi-stakeholder initiatives, execute procurement processes, and deliver measurable development outcomes for foreign agencies.
These are people who have learned to navigate bureaucracies, manage budgets, implement programs, and deliver results. They’ve done it for UNICEF, for the World Bank, for Save the Children. They’ve built skills and expertise that Somaliland desperately needs.
It’s time to repurpose these professionals to work for God and country.
But let’s be clear: not all NGO experience is created equal. Some professionals need a metaphorical reeducation camp—meaning a hard reset away from jargon and toward measurable outcomes. “Monitoring and Evaluation” and “Cross-Cutting” vernaculars alone won’t cut it. The government must demand results, not jargon. Get a low performance rating in your own evaluation? You’ll be looking for work somewhere else.
The goal is to make public service so attractive that it becomes the place where talent wants to come. Competitive salaries. Merit-based advancement. Real responsibility. Meaningful work.
Stop building someone else’s portfolio. Start building Somaliland’s institutions. Stop implementing projects designed in New York or Geneva. Start designing policies for Hargeisa, Borama, Burao, and Erigavo—for Somaliland.
But here’s the problem: Why would competent people—diaspora or domestic—want to work for a government defined by patronage rather than performance? Why would a talented professional leave a well-paying NGO job to join a ministry where competence is secondary to clan affiliation? Where the best ideas die in bureaucratic limbo while the worst ideas flourish under political protection? Where corruption is rewarded and integrity is punished?
The Bloated Apparatus
Credible reports and internal audits suggest Somaliland’s 18,000-person civil service suffers from widespread ghost workers and absenteeism, with a substantial portion of payroll supporting non-performers. This isn’t governance—it’s patronage masquerading as administration.
President Irro must act decisively: eliminate ghost positions, slash non-performers, redirect Somaliland’s limited budget toward development rather than subsidizing political debts.
Brutal? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely. The alternative is institutional bankruptcy—not just financial, but institutional. A government that cannot afford to pay competent people competitive salaries because it’s subsidizing an army of non-performers is a government destined to fail.
The Herculean Task
None of this rot is President Irro’s creation. The corruption, bloated bureaucracy, extractive systems, financial cartels, UN dependency—all predate his presidency. These are institutional failures calcified over three decades into accepted practice, becoming the infrastructure of governance itself.
President Irro showed iron resolve securing Israeli recognition—doing what predecessors couldn’t or wouldn’t. He took the risk. He delivered the result.
But cleaning house is a far more monumental and Herculean task than securing recognition. Recognition required secrecy, diplomacy, and strategic patience. Reform requires something harder: sustained political courage under relentless scrutiny.
It means making enemies of powerful people. Breaking patronage networks that span clans and families. Telling hard truths to allies who expect favors. Regulatory confrontation with business interests that can mobilize resources against reform.
He cannot do it alone. President Irro needs the right team—not the politically convenient team, not the clan-balancing team, but the competent team. Professionals who will implement painful reforms, resist regulatory capture, prioritize national development over personal gain.
The defining questions of his presidency are whether he can demand reciprocity from partners treating Somaliland as convenient fiction, whether he can renegotiate UN mandates and World Bank arrangements requiring recognition as the price of operation, whether he can regulate the financial sector with international AML/CFT standards against the will of powerful oligarchs, whether he can dismantle extractive bureaucracy, whether he can build a merit-based civil service, and whether he can transform Somaliland from aid-dependent entity into recognized nation prepared for equal partnership.
These questions determine whether he’s remembered as the president who secured recognition—or the president who made recognition matter.
This Is Mobilization, Not Celebration
President Irro delivered what was thought unattainable. He made his people proud. He gave Somaliland something its detractors said would never come: proof that perseverance matters, that democracy counts, that a small nation with the courage of giants can bend the arc of history.
But history doesn’t stop bending just because you’ve moved it once.
The quiet diplomat won the war. Now Somaliland must win the peace through uncomfortable, disruptive, necessary choices.
Tell diplomatic partners: recognize us, or leave. Tell the UN, World Bank, EU: we govern ourselves now—partnership requires recognizing that sovereignty. Tell financial conglomerates: international regulatory standards apply, or operations cease. Tell civil servants: perform, or vacate positions for those who will. Tell political allies: competence precedes loyalty.
These decisions separate nations from aspirations. More recognition is coming—but Somaliland must deserve it, not just celebrate it.
Sun Tzu wrote: “Every battle is won before it is fought.” Somaliland won first. The war—the real war, the war of implementation, execution, and nation-building—begins now.
And unlike recognition—secured in silence—this war cannot be fought in silence or secured through secrecy. This war requires all of us.
The hard work begins now. And it begins with honesty: Somaliland has been running itself like a well-meaning refugee camp managed by foreign do-gooders and sustained by patronage, corruption, and unregulated cartels. That ends today.
Recognition is not the reward. It is the responsibility.
Let’s get to work.
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