Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi spent the past week in Washington making the case that the U.S. should become the first country to recognize his self-declared state’s independence — and he's leaving with some positive signals to show for it.
Why it matters: Somaliland has governed itself for three decades but is recognized internationally and by the U.S. as part of Somalia, a position the State Department reaffirmed this week. Unlike the remainder of Somalia and most of its neighbors on the Horn of Africa, though, it's democratic and relatively secure.
Somaliland’s democratic bona fides and location in an area where the U.S. is competing with China for influence did not go unnoticed on Capitol Hill.
Somaliland’s independence push is opposed by the African Union, with members fearing that it could further destabilize Somalia and embolden separatists elsewhere.
“We survived the last 33 years with our own efforts,” Bihi told me. International recognition would unlock foreign aid and access to international lenders like the World Bank.
Flashback: Somaliland was briefly independent after British colonial rule ended in 1960, joined almost immediately into a union with Italian-administered Somaliland to form Somalia, then unilaterally declared independence three decades later.
The bottom line: “Every country we meet for the past 30 years, they have the same answer for us,” Bihi said, recounting praise for Somaliland’s stability and improvements in its institutions, but reluctance to be the first country to recognize its independence.
