Why Israel is strengthening ties with Somaliland as Red Sea rivalry intensifies

Israel accorded a state reception for Somaliland’s president in Jerusalem, bestowing a highly regarded award on the leader of a territory still unrecognized by any nation other than Israel.

Last Sunday, President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi made his first ever visit to a Somaliland leader, six months after Israel became the first country to formally recognize the breakaway region’s independence from Somalia.

Abdullahi told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “For 35 years we have been asking the world to see us. And Israel and you yourself were the first to see us and recognize us.”

Somaliland sits opposite the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, controlling a vast coastline along one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors.

Israel, which has spent the past two years exchanging fire with Yemen’s Houthis while watching the Red Sea face frequent trade disruptions, has taken on an emerging prominence in the region.

A senior researcher at the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies, Moses Chrispus Okello said: “ Israel and Somaliland are going into the consolidation phase of this relationship and obviously the pageantry with which Cirro has been received demonstrates that.”

While the crucial decision to strengthen relationships appeared largely popular in Somaliland during an Israeli delegation’s visit for Independence Day, rumbles of discontent have been escalating since.

Somaliland's president Netanyahu announced during a meeting with Netanyahu that the agreement marked the beginning of the most substantial phase in diplomatic relations and strategic cooperation between their nations.