Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist ——Bio and Archives--December 31, 2025

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On December 26, 2025, Israel became the first country to formally recognize the Republic of Somaliland as “an independent and sovereign state.”

Somalia’s President Sheikh Mohamud called Israel’s action an act of “aggression that will never be tolerated.” He added that "Somalia & its people are one: inseparable by division from afar."

At Somalia’s request, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting on December 29th to line up the so-called “international community” against Israel’s action. Multiple Security Council members and others obliged, warning that the move was a provocative step that undercuts the Mogadishu regime's sovereignty.

They are wrong.

By way of background, the former British Somaliland protectorate to the north first gained its independence on June 26, 1960 and received international recognition as the “State of Somaliland.” Four days later, after the Italian-controlled Somalia territory, known as the Trust Territory of Somaliland, gained its independence, the independent State of Somaliland voluntarily joined a federation with the independent Trust Territory of Somaliland to form the Somali Republic. They agreed to Mogadishu as its capital.

But the State of Somaliland only agreed to this arrangement upon the condition that its people would be guaranteed certain rights. It did not take long for the rulers in Mogadishu, who increasingly treated what had been the independent State of Somaliland as a vassal territory, to blatantly trample on those rights. Resistance to the dictatorial regime by the Somaliland people in the north was met with ruthless attacks that devolved into genocide, costing tens of thousands of people their........

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