What started as a documentary inquiry into logistics, trade corridors, and geopolitics quickly evolved into something more human, more intimate.
Our journey across Somaliland—stretching from the port city of Berbera to the bustling highlands of Hargeisa—revealed stories of pride, resilience, and unexpected diplomacy.
Moments Behind the Filming (Berbera)
Upon filming our interview, in Berbera, with Mr Abdullahi; he finished the interview with a surprising remark.
Siad Hassan Abdullahi, Director General Berbera Ports Authority: You are the first British Journalist here in Berbera; it is a true honour.
It seems that most foreign media are American and apparently from CNN… he quipped with a knowing smile.
Who knew? The sense of being noticed, recorded, and understood clearly carried weight for a people whose pride stems from their defiance to seek recognition whilst pointing our their longstanding merits against the odds.
A Red Sea Bond – Yemenis in Hargeisa
Returning back to Hargeisa, after a long drive from Berbera on a one road system built by DP World, we stopped to interview some Yemenis.
Across Hargeisa, there were a lot of Yemenis mixed in with the local population of Somalilanders. I was surprised to see so many Yemenis, bar the obvious reasons for their departure from their homeland, most Yemenis look to the GCC states for refuge.
Scattered across the city, Yemenis—many of them displaced by the war—live among Somalilanders, not as strangers, but as familiar neighbours.
Those we met in Hargeisa described Somaliland as a rare sanctuary amid regional collapse.
Somaliland and Yemen are bound by more than shared hardship: their links span religion, tribal systems, commerce, and a Red Sea culture that long predates modern borders or conflict.
Unity in the Face of Independence Struggles
Upon speaking with such Yemenis, we left to the central monument in Hargeisa; a monument built to commemorate the civil war in ‘Somalia’ and the downfall of the regime in Mogadishu by 1991.
Somalilanders suffered a series of genocide(s) backed by the Barre regime between 1960-1991.
Academic and journalistic reports highlight how these series of genocide’s targeted the Somali National Movement based in ‘north east Somalia’, with a large Isaaq majority; the biggest clan in Somaliland.
A group of locals gathered, curious about our presence and my background. One by one, they stepped forward—not with questions, but with something far more symbolic: their national flag.
Similar Insights on the Horn of Africa at DET include:
Exclusive: Recognition, Somalia, and Normalisation
Two Arteries, One Lifeline: Somaliland and Taiwan Talk Maritime Cooperation
Zainabiyyat: The Houthi’s Veil of Truth
