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Officials credit President Irro’s U.S. outreach; others warn a new name could weaken Somaliland’s legal case
HARGEISA — U.S. President Donald Trump has called Somaliland “a totally different country” from Somalia and said it should “change the name immediately,” setting off a debate in Hargeisa. Senior officials are presenting the remarks as a result of President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi “Irro”‘s recent visit to the United States. Others warn that abandoning the country’s historic name could damage the legal case for recognition that a new name is supposed to help.
Trump made the comments at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Monday, 12 October, while attacking Minnesota’s Somali community over immigration and fraud. “Some people like Somaliland. It has nothing to do,” he said. “I think they should change the name immediately.”
It was not a policy statement, and Washington still affirms Somalia’s territorial integrity. But in Hargeisa the remarks were widely read as a rare public acknowledgment from a sitting U.S. president that Somaliland stands apart from Somalia.
Somalia’s federal government condemned Israel’s recognition of Somaliland in December as a “deliberate attack” on its sovereignty. As of Tuesday afternoon, it had not publicly responded to Trump’s remarks. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.
Officials Link Remarks to Irro’s Visit
Minister of the Presidency Khadar Hussein Abdi tied the comments directly to President Irro’s September trip. In a post on X on 13 October, he wrote:
“For those who doubted the achievements of our President’s recent visit to the United States, here is the response. For the first time in history, a sitting U.S. President has publicly acknowledged Somaliland as a country separate from Somalia. … We remain hopeful that formal U.S. recognition of the Republic of Somaliland is on the horizon.”
The Presidency’s official account was more restrained. It said the remarks “underscore Somaliland’s distinct identity and its separate political reality.” It pledged to pursue recognition “through principled diplomacy and constructive international engagement.”
President Irro spent nearly two weeks in the United States. He met members of Congress, spoke at the Hudson Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations, and held talks with U.S. government departments. At home, the trip was criticised for the size of the delegation and its cost. Minister Khadar’s post was a direct reply to those critics.
Not all the criticism came from the usual quarters. Prof. Ahmed Ismail Samatar, a prominent Somaliland scholar and politician, called the trip a failure. “All things considered, I believe that trip resulted in a loss,” he said in an interview from the United States in early October. In his view, the delegation came home without gains to match the expectations it had raised. Samatar also criticised the government’s decision to open its first embassy abroad in Jerusalem in June, calling it a political blunder and “a great embarrassment.”
Countering China: The Cruz Argument
Among the lawmakers President Irro met was Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, on 18 September. Afterwards Cruz wrote on X that he was “committed to securing American recognition of Somaliland’s sovereignty.” In the meantime, he said, he was urging the State Department “to stop treating Somaliland as the same as Somalia.” No one in Washington has made the strategic case for recognition more forcefully, or tied it more directly to China.
In a letter to President Trump dated 14 August 2025, Cruz urged recognition of Somaliland “as an independent state, with sovereignty within its 1960 borders.” He wrote as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, and called Somaliland a “critical security and diplomatic partner.”
Cruz pointed to Somaliland’s position on the Gulf of Aden, beside one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and to its armed forces’ work against terrorism and piracy. He also highlighted its foreign-policy choices. Somaliland, he wrote, had “enabled the opening of a Taiwanese Representative Office in the capital of Hargeisa, sought to strengthen ties with Israel, and voiced support for the Abraham Accords.” The Taiwanese office opened in 2020.
He argued that Somaliland has paid for those choices. “The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using economic and diplomatic coercion to punish Somaliland for its support for Taiwan, as well as to undermine that support,” he wrote. He said Mogadishu had played “an unfortunate role.” He cited an April 2025 decision to bar Taiwanese passport holders from transiting into Somaliland, which he said Beijing arranged. He added that Chinese support to Somalia was benefiting anti-Somaliland groups working to erode its sovereignty.
Despite the pressure, Cruz wrote, Somaliland “remains committed to forging closer ties with the U.S.” His conclusion was blunt: “I urge you to grant it that recognition.”
Beijing hit back. The Chinese Embassy in Mogadishu called the letter “serious interference in the internal affairs of Somalia.” It accused certain U.S. politicians of a “hegemonic and bullying attitude.” Cruz replied that China’s anger only strengthened the case.
The strategic argument comes down to Berbera. In neighbouring Djibouti, America’s main base in Africa, Camp Lemonnier, sits a few kilometres from China’s first overseas military base. Berbera is a deep-water port developed by the UAE’s DP World and served by a long runway. It would give Washington an alternative on the same strategic waterway. President Irro has signalled openness to U.S. military access and critical-minerals cooperation, according to regional reporting.
Cruz speaks for himself, not for U.S. policy. No recognition has been announced.
The Name Question
Waddani Party Chairman Hersi Ali Haji Hassan, who leads the ruling party, welcomed Trump’s suggestion. “We welcome President Trump’s innovative idea that Somaliland should adopt a name that clearly differentiates it from Somalia,” he wrote on X. “The Red Sea Republic could be a strong option.”
That is Hersi’s proposal, not the government’s. He argued that Somalilanders and Somalis share an ethnicity but are “politically… two distinct countries.” He pointed to Somaliland’s independence from Britain on 26 June 1960, five days before it entered the ill-fated union with the former Italian-administered south.
The argument predates Trump. Some Somalilanders have long said the name invites confusion and ties the country, in foreign eyes, to the south’s insecurity and dysfunction. Alternatives floated over the years include “Red Sea Republic,” “Adal Republic,” and “Horn of Africa Republic.”
Opponents see the name as evidence in Somaliland’s case. “Somaliland” was the name of the British protectorate and of the independent state that existed for five days in 1960. The recognition case rests on the claim that in 1991 Somaliland restored a sovereignty it already had, rather than seceding from Somalia. A new name, critics warn, would let opponents argue that 1991 created something new.
“The name Somaliland is documented in the history books since 1884,” said one figure close to the ruling party, while still thanking Trump for drawing the distinction.
A Presidential Decision
Under U.S. law, recognising foreign states is for the president alone to decide. In Zivotofsky v. Kerry (2015), the Supreme Court held that the power belongs exclusively to the executive.
It can move fast. Truman recognised Israel eleven minutes after its declaration on 14 May 1948. George W. Bush recognised Kosovo the day after it declared independence in 2008, and Washington recognised South Sudan on its independence day in 2011. In his first term, Trump himself recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Trump could recognise Somaliland by proclamation, with no vote in Congress. An embassy would still need congressional funding.
What the Remarks May Mean
Trump’s public comments on Somaliland have shifted over the past year. In August 2025 he said his administration was “looking into” recognition. When Israel became the first UN member state to recognise Somaliland on 26 December 2025, he declined to follow, saying the matter was “under study.”
Calling Somaliland “a totally different country” goes further than either. Some in Hargeisa see the remark as consistent with the case Cruz and President Irro have been making. Others point out that it came in passing, in a speech about Minnesota, and that the State Department has not moved.
For the government, the remarks are a validation it will use. For critics of the U.S. trip, they settle nothing until they become a signed recognition. And the name debate, which many Somalilanders considered closed, is open again.
