Somaliland: breakaway region in quest for statehood

Voters queue to cast their votes as a woman covers herself with a Somaliland flag before the opening of the polls during the 2024 Somaliland presidential election in Hargeisa on November 13, 2024. [AFP]

Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, holds a presidential election on Wednesday at a time of diplomatic tensions in the Horn of Africa.

Here are some key facts about the territory:

Independence declaration

Somaliland declared independence from war-torn Somalia in 1991 after the fall of autocrat Siad Barre.

But it remains unrecognised by any country or international organisation, leaving the region poor and isolated.

The former British protectorate elects its own leaders based in the self-appointed capital of Hargeisa, and has its own currency and army.

Its approximately six million people cannot travel easily as their passports are rarely accepted.

Taiwan -- another diplomatically isolated territory -- has come closest to formally recognising Somaliland, referring to it as a country.

A few African and European countries have opened diplomatic missions in Hargeisa, including Kenya and Ethiopia.

Economy 

The region has a strategic position in the Horn of Africa, lying in the northwest of Somalia on the Gulf of Aden and neighbouring Djibouti and Ethiopia.

But lack of recognition has hampered growth in a region already beset by extreme poverty, frustrating access to foreign loans, aid, and investment.

The economy is mostly powered by remittances from the diaspora and livestock exports, as well as duties from the port of Berbera, a regional shipping hub.

Oasis of stability

Somaliland has avoided much of the chaos and violence plaguing other parts of Somalia, sharpening a sense of failure in the rest of the country.

However, long-simmering clan tensions erupted into deadly fighting in early 2023 between Somaliland's forces and militias loyal to Somalia around the city of Las Anod.

The fighting left hundreds dead and displaced thousands more in the area, which straddles a key trade route and is claimed by both Somaliland and neighbouring Puntland, a semi-autonomous state of northeastern Somalia.

Ethiopia deal

In January, Somaliland struck a controversial maritime deal to lease 20 kilometres (12 miles) of its coast for 50 years to landlocked Ethiopia, saying it would get recognition in return.

The details have not been confirmed by Ethiopia, but the deal was still denounced by Somalia as a brazen assault on its sovereignty.

Somalia responded by building closer diplomatic and military ties with Ethiopia's longtime rival Egypt, at odds with Addis Ababa over a large hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile.

Somalia has also deepened ties with another rival, Eritrea, which seceded from Ethiopia in 1993.

Rock art and climate

Some of the oldest and best-preserved rock paintings in Africa are to be found at Laas Geel (Somali for "camel watering hole"), about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Hargeisa.

A plethora of colorful animal and human sketches were drawn between 3,500 and 2,500 BC.

Somaliland comprises 177,000 square kilometres (68,000 square miles) of rugged highlands, arid deserts, and coastal plains along the Red Sea.

Like much of the Horn, it is one of the world's most vulnerable places to climate change, often hit by extreme flooding and drought.

In 2018, a tropical cyclone left more than a dozen dead and thousands homeless.