Israel became the first UN member state to recognise Somaliland’s sovereignty last week. The move seemed to offer Netanyahu’s government strategic access to the Red Sea and a foothold against Houthi forces in Yemen.
The decision prompted immediate condemnation from the African Union, Arab League, and regional powers including Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Somalia’s government called the recognition an unlawful attack on sovereignty.
The recognition technically constitutes a return rather than a new venture. Israel had recognised Somaliland during its brief five-day independence in 1960, before the territory united with Somalia. The development comes as Tel Aviv pushes relations in Africa with the reopening of its embassy in Zambia earlier last year.
Echoes from Lebanon’s Shores
Netanyahu’s diplomatic manoeuvre recalls earlier Israeli strategies in Lebanon during the 1980s. Israel had forged an alliance with Bashir Gemayel’s Phalangist forces to install a pro-Israeli government in Beirut following the 1982 invasion.
The partnership with these militias produced tactical benefits through the creation of “Free Lebanon” under Major Saad Haddad’s command.
The collaboration unravelled quickly. Gemayel fell to an assassin’s bullet in September 1982. The subsequent Sabra and Shatila massacre, where Phalangist forces killed between 2,000 and 3,500 Palestinian refugees, turned global opinion. Israeli forces withdrew to a security zone in 1985, maintaining occupation until 2000.
The occupation created conditions for Hezbollah’s emergence. Founded in 1982 by Lebanese clerics and backed by 1,500 Iranian Revolutionary Guard instructors, the militant group filled the vacuum left by Israel’s destruction of PLO infrastructure.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak acknowledged in 2006 that Israeli presence in Lebanon created Hezbollah, stating local communities initially welcomed Israeli forces with perfumed rice and flowers.
From Gratification to Instability: Transactional Recognition
The Somaliland decision signals to other secessionist Somali regions that strategic value brings transactional rewards.
Puntland and Jubaland recently withdrew from Somalia’s federal system amid constitutional disputes. Puntland’s interior minister posted that patience pays off, viewing the development favourably.
However, Somalia’s al-Shabab militia pledged to fight any Israeli presence in Somaliland territories. The group frames insurgency as resistance against external interference. Similar dynamics unfolded in Lebanon where Israeli occupation galvanised resistance movements.
Building Rather than Using
Successful engagement with Africa requires constructive investment in long-term development.
Israeli recognition of Somaliland trades immediate strategic advantage for longer-term complications. The South Lebanon experience demonstrated that backing breakaway entities and subnational forces can lead to unintended consequences in the long run.
Africa needs partners who respect sovereignty and invest in prosperity, who build infrastructure and transfer technology, who engage politically through African Union frameworks. External powers who exploit instability for strategic outposts replicate colonial-era chess moves dressed in contemporary security language.
The recognition of Somaliland offers Netanyahu a talking point and potential military access. Somaliland deserves recognition based on its functioning government, peaceful democratic transitions, and stability since 1991.
Recognition motivated by strategic opportunism during regional conflicts courts the same failures that plagued the past.
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Read also:
Democracy is Somaliland’s Greatest Threat as it is its Blessing
Unrecognised Independence: The Somaliland Case
Somaliland Recognition: The Gauntlet Falls to the International Community
