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Toronto – The government of Somaliland is reportedly taking its campaign for recognition as a sovereign nation to the International Court of Justice.
According to the RT report, which cited Somaliland Standard, “The government of Somaliland is set to appeal to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a bid to be granted sovereignty”
Dr. Issa Kayd Mohamud, Somaliland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation who was on a visit to France, revealed that the government is pursuing the matter legally.
He is cited as saying that “the government has already retained international lawyers which will defend the legal rights that the country has at a global stage such that Somaliland may gain its rightful place amongst the international community.” It appears that the case is not yet lodged and the report unspecified if there was a planned time frame for it.
Somaliland signed a memorandum of understanding with Abiy Ahmed’s government of Ethiopia on January 1, 2024. According to the agreement, Ethiopia was to recognize the breakaway Somaliland government as a sovereign state in return for a twenty-kilometer stretch of coastal land along the Gulf of Aden on a 50-year lease condition which Ethiopia intended to use as a commercial and maritime basis. There are rumors that Abiy Ahmed’s government is quietly withdrawing from it following mounting international pressure on alleged grounds that it would lead the entire region to conflict.
The government of Somalia was outraged by Abiy Ahmed’s government which it accused of violating the sovereignty of its country. Somaliland has been a de facto state since 1991 ending its thirty-one-year union with Somalia. It was in 1960 that Somaliland became part of Somalia after the former got its independence from Britain. Hassan Sheikh, Somalia’s president, was in Eritrea this week, for a third time in less than a year.
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The then citizens of British Somaliland made a costly mistake in 1960 by choosing to forgo their separate entity as a nation. But the citizens of Territoire Français des Afars et des Issas made a different and extremely wise decision to go on their own 17 years later in 1977 to move up the notch to independence. Now it turns out to be a tall order for the government and citizens of Somaliland to reverse a 64 year old nightmare. The problem with they are now appealing for recognition is the fear that such decision may open a can of worms on other parts of the globe. Europe has many such issues. Africa has a mountain of it. UK and Spain have on-going secession issues. Asia is living with smoldering such demands. What worries decision makers is countless ‘how about me’s?’ all over the world. I hope there will be a solution sorted between our Somali brothers and sisters in Mogadishu and Hargeisa.