Date 31/12/2022
Reference SSE/UK-127/31122022
SSE – PRESS RELEASE
Response to the press release from Somalia on 12/28/2022.
We, the Somaliland Society in Europe, declare here that recent letter by the Federal Government of Somalia claiming that Somaliland is part of Somalia and cannot drill oil in Somaliland without authorization was affront to Somaliland Republic sovereignty. Somalia has no legal or military power to stop Somaliland from drilling oil in their country because Somaliland is the sovereign state and Somaliland was under protection of UK Government from 1884 to 26 June, 1960. During colonial times, its official name was Somaliland British Protectorate and achieved independence from United Kingdom on June 26, 1960. Immediately after independence, Somaliland was recognised as a sovereign state by over 30 countries. Because of chauvinistic winds of 1960, Somaliland immediately had unratified unification with Somalia.
There was no significant formal, ratified agreement between then newly independent states of
Somaliland and Somalia because:
- There was no official Parliamentary approval
- There was no Supreme Court approving the fledgling union
- There was no UN Resolution recognising and approving the unification process.
Somaliland reclaimed its independence from Somalia after 30 years of injustice and devastating Union and restored its political institutions of independence attained on 26 June 1960 from the Great Britain. Somaliland currently exercises lawful sovereignty of its independence of June 26, 1960 based on the following valid, legal points:
⦁ Political independence of Somaliland was discussed and agreed during London Constitutional conference from 4th to 12th May 1960, decision appointed that the date of independence of Somaliland shall be on 26 June 1960. Decision was submitted to UK Parliament.
⦁ Political Independence of Somaliland was on the basis of the official proclamation of Her Majesty’s Government the QUEEN on Friday 24th June 1960; recognition of Somaliland was officially published by the authority on Friday 24th June 1960, the London Gazette No. 42074, the Belfast Gazette No. 2035/239, and the Edinburgh Gazette No. 17,833/387
⦁ Political independence of Somaliland was registered Court at Buckingham, “Given at Court at Buckingham Palace, this twenty-third day of June, in the year of one Thousand nine hundred and sixty, ( 23 June 1960 ) ” see at end of the QUEEN’s proclamation statement.
⦁ Political independence of Somaliland is on the basis of international treaties concluded between Somaliland and UK Government on 26 June 1960, – UK Treaty Series No. 44 (1960) was submitted to the UK Parliament.
⦁ Political independence of Somaliland is on the basis of international treaties recorded and registered with the United Nations by the UK Government on 13th September 1960, UN Treaty Series 1960, and Volume 374.
Somaliland territory
Somaliland’s independence restores the colonial borders of the former British Protectorate of Somaliland and therefore does not violate the principle of uti possidetis – that former colonial borders should be maintained upon independence – which is enshrined in the Consultative Act of the African Union (Session in Cairo, UAR, from 17 to 21 July 1964).
Somaliland statehood
Somaliland fulfils all the criteria for statehood as those set by the 1933 Montevideo Convention, “The State as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications”:
(a) a permanent population;
(b) a defined territory;
(c) government; and
(d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states..
Somalia is a classic example of a failed state. It effectively has had no reasonably working state structures since 1991, but its cosmetic existence has from 1992 been practically subject to the Security Council’s 1992 Resolution of 733, adopted again in 2019 as 2472. With billions of dollars wasted in establishing governance, the international community has nothing to show for that all those resources other than securing a few miles around Mogadishu. Somalia still struggles to stand on its feet and the chances it will do so in the foreseeable future is dim. It is dim because instead of coming to terms with the factuality that Somaliland has left the 1960 dubious union, Somalia continues to put ratifying its draft constitution and completing its state institution building on the back burner.
Our message to the international stakeholders
(A) We call upon the international community to accept the factuality that Somalia has no de facto jurisdiction, no legal basis for its claim on Somaliland and no relevance on the political processes in Somaliland
(B) We express our concerns that if Somalia continues with its sinister plans to spoil the peace and stability Somaliland has achieved without support from the international community by pitting Somaliland communities against one an other, or by derailing our economic progress, the security of the wider region of the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden will be comprised. Therefore, having seen the laws above, Somalia has no legal power or government authority to claim Somaliland.
Yours Sincerely
Executive Committee Somaliland Society in Europe (SSE)
Contact email : ssediaspora@gmail.com