‘Anyone who doesn’t like our alliance with Israel can mind their own business!’ Somaliland’s president tells the JC

“Our (formal) relationship is very young, but from the beginning it has been an open, frank, friendly partnership,” he tells the JC from a gilded armchair in the presidential palace.

Somaliland's President Hargeisa with Jake Wallis Simons[Missing Credit]

“We are building links in security, the economy, trade and diplomacy. I expect to make an official visit to Jerusalem later this year.”

He dismisses reports of hostility towards Israel in Somaliland as “fake news”, adding: “We all want to see in our future relations with Israel even more friendliness, more growth, more cooperation in technological knowhow.”

What about those in the Muslim world who have criticised his alliance with Jerusalem? “They should mind their own business,” he laughs. “Every country is free to form alliances with whomever it wants.”

Certainly, there is goodwill towards Israel on the ground. When recognition was announced in December, there was a rush to print Israeli flags to wave in the streets, as it had been kept secret until the very last minute, leaving no time to prepare for the celebrations.

Most educated Somalilanders are effusive on the subject of the Jewish state. The fact remains, however, that during the Liberation Day festivities in the capital, Hargeisa, last week, almost no Israeli flags were waved.

Moreover, an Israeli journalist confided that he had been taunted with shouts of “free Palestine” in the street and did not feel safe to be out alone.

Somaliland's President Hargeisa receives an Iron Dome fragment from Israel[Missing Credit]

The president dismisses these observations. “This is not a concern for me, not at all,” he says.

“This all started when I wrote 193 letters to the leaders of every single UN member state asking for recognition of our country. The only one to respond positively was Benjamin Netanyahu. We are not shy of being a partner with Israel.”

From Somaliland’s point of view, its history is as frustrating as it is tortuous.

During colonial times, it was a British protectorate, catching the eye of London due to its strategic positioning; its 530 miles of coastline leads to the Bab al-Mandab strait, a crucial maritime chokepoint between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea (to this day, up to 15 per cent of shipping passes through it, and it is sometimes menaced by the Houthis in nearby Yemen).

Somalia, meanwhile, was under Italian control. In 1960, both Western powers withdrew, leading to both Somalia and Somaliland winning international recognition as separate states.

Five days later, however, they agreed to unify, but in the years that followed, the Mogadishu regime became increasingly corrupt, Islamist and brutal.

In the Eighties, hundreds of thousands of Somalilanders were massacred by the regime. Finally, on May 18, 1991 – the 35th anniversary of which was celebrated last week – Somaliland managed to regain the independence it had been granted in 1960. By then, however, the world could not be deterred from its prior commitment to the notion of a unified Somalia.

Somaliland-born British TV presenter Rageh Omaar (centre) with Jake Wallis Simons (right) on The Brink[Missing Credit]

In the years since, Somaliland has distinguished itself by becoming a rare stable democracy in East Africa. Indeed, it is the only jurisdiction in the world to use iris scanners during elections, to prevent voter fraud.

It is friendly to the West and, as its relationship with Israel shows, it has firmly chosen a side in the growing global polarisation between the democracies and their allies and the authoritarian axis of China, Russia and Iran.

Somalia, meanwhile, has become a basket case. Ranked first on the global fragile state index, it is riddled with corruption and its government is full of men with deep links to Al Shabaab. Its prime minister, Hamza Abdi Barre, supports Hamas and has referred to Jewish people as “children of pigs and dogs”.

That is not even the worst of it. Outside the capital, Mogadishu, the country is largely controlled by Al Shabaab – the Al Qaeda affiliate is a sort of mafia/jihadist blend – which deals with the population with an iron fist.

You’d have thought that picking a side would be a no-brainer. Yet Britain, which remains wedded to the outdated vision of a unified Somalia, has lavished aid money on Mogadishu, almost none of which trickled down to Somaliland.

Last year alone, the government handed over £61m of taxpayers’ cash, despite fears that it was funding corruption and even terrorism.

Many of Somaliland’s friends, such as the former defence secretary Gavin Williamson, who now leads the country’s new international recognition campaign institute, describe Britain’s stance as hypocritical.

“It is a double standard,” the president concedes. “But I’m confident that in time, Britain and other countries will follow Israel and place themselves on the right side of history.”

Somaliland foreign affairs advisor Jama Egal[Missing Credit]

The reasons for Britain’s position are complex. Partly, the Foreign Office is wary of upsetting a delicate power balance in the region, fearing that recognition of Somaliland could cause other states to assert their old territorial claims to disputed territory.

Yet some analysts believe that Britain is allowing a sense of colonial guilt, combined with a slavish adherence to “international law”, to prevent it from taking a leadership role in Africa, creating a vacuum that is all too eagerly filled by China.

Jerusalem, however, has no such concerns. Although its recent recognition of Somaliland has thrust the issue into the spotlight, the relationship is much older.

Israel was one of the first countries to recognise the state back in 1960, and it is the only UN member to have raised Somali human rights abuses against Somalilanders during the Eighties with the Security Council.

Moreover, according to Rageh Omaar – the Somaliland-born ITV presenter who appeared in an episode of my podcast, The Brink, which we recorded in Hargeisa last week – after a war-torn Somaliland had finally regained its independence, its second leader, Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal, wrote a landmark letter in 1995 to Israel’s prime minister Yitzhak Rabin emphasising how both nations faced Islamist extremism, needed strategic security and were politically isolated.

The letter laid the groundwork for the renewed recognition that would come three decades later. “It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” Omaar said.

On liberation day this year, May 18, the first Somaliland ambassador to Israel, Dr Momamed Hagi, presented his credentials to President Herzog in Jerusalem.

At a ceremony in the presidential palace in Hargeisa, meanwhile, the Israel delegation presented president Abdullahi with a menorah, a mezuzah and a fragment of an Iron Dome missile interceptor. The theme of protection was unmistakable.

On the Somaliland side, the brains behind the Israeli recognition was foreign affairs adviser Jama Egal, who spearheaded the top-secret negotiations last year. After dinner at a hotel in Hargeisa, he told the JC how it happened.

“One day, I was in Israel conducting secret talks and I said I was carrying three messages from our president: recognition, recognition and recognition.

"The Israelis sat back and asked what would be in it for them. I told them that first and foremost, it would be about friendship. The flag of Israel would be planted in the hearts of six million Sunni Muslims. That really got them interested.”

During the discussions, he said, “harder reasons”, like Somaliland’s valuable strategic location opposite the Houthis in Yemen (a $442m Emirati base is under construction at Somaliland’s Berbera port), were discussed.

“But it was not transactional,” Egal said. “First and foremost, we both wanted to be genuine partners.” Over the last six months, Somalilander water experts, special forces troops and intelligence officials have all received training in Israel.

But civil society links have been growing, too. Recently, an economic conference in nearby Addis Ababa – the Somali regime made it too difficult for this to be held in Hargeisa – was attended by both Somalilander and Israeli businesspeople and has resulted in “some deals already”.

This is a genuine friendship, Egal said, unlike many other alliances in the region. “In Somalia, Turkey is dominant,” he said.

“But they are raping the country, taking 95 per cent of its oil sales, controlling the airport, port and offshore fisheries for Ankara’s benefit, and setting up a military base that functions independently.

"It has become like a little Turkey. Our relationship with Israel is nothing like that. It is not exploitative. We are both helping each other.”

As a consequence, he said, affection for Israel has greatly increased in Somaliland. Prior to recognition, about 30 per cent of locals favoured the Jewish state, with 30 per cent ambivalent and 40 per cent favouring Palestine. Now, he said, up to 95 per cent are warm towards Israel.

Back in the presidential palace, president Abdullahi gives the same message, even though much of the Muslim world wrongly accuses Israel of committing genocide.

“Jerusalem needs more friends and partners, especially from Islamic countries,” the president says. “Somaliland has actually experienced a genocide at the hands of Somalia in the Eighties.

"We do not sympathise with any genocide. Israel is the only country that has taken this step, and we hope that Britain, the EU, the USA, Arab countries and others will come to their senses and do the same.”

The Brink podcast, with Jake Wallis Simons and Andrew Fox, is out on all platforms now