BRIEF HISTORY OF SOMALILAND
Somaliland has one of the longest histories in the Horn of Africa. In the early 1880s, the Great Britain and Somaliland clans reached and concluded treaties that formed the Somaliland British Protectorate that was proclaimed in 1887.
In accordance with international boundaries, the British Protectorate marked the Somaliland boundaries by treaties with Côte française des Somalis (the Anglo-French treaty in September 1888) to the west, Somalia Italian (a series of treaties known as the British-Italian treaty in March 1894) to the east, and the Kingdom of Ethiopia (the Anglo-Ethiopian treaty in May 1897) to the south.
After long and remarkable struggles, Somaliland became sovereign and an independent state on June 26, 1960, from the British Protectorate.
More than 35 countries, including the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, sent Somaliland State congratulatory telegrams that recognized the new independent state.
On July 1st, 1960, after five days of independence, Somaliland voluntarily united with Somalia in order to create a greater Somalia (Somali Republic), or one Somali country. That was an idea to bring together all Somali ethnic groups in Horn Africa into one country, including British Somaliland, which is today the Republic of Somaliland; Italian Somalia, which is today the Federal Government of Somalia; French Somaliland, which is today the Republic of Djibouti; North Eastern Province (NFD) Kenya, which is today one of the provinces of the Republic of Kenya; and Hawd and Researve Area, which is today one of the federal members of the States of Ethiopia.
That union was not ratified because the treaty of union was not completed in the legal process format in the Somalia legislature. The Somaliland legislature was passed as a law of union, but the Somali Republic legislature was not passed.
Also, the people of Somaliland had totally refused and said no to the voting of the new Somali republic constitution on June 20, 1961. The result of the referendum on the new constitution showed that all districts of Somaliland clearly rejected it. So, in a legal sense, the union was not completed.
Since that union (1960–1991), the Somaliland people have faced all forms of genocide from the governments of the Somali Republic, particularly the government led by the military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, who came to power through a military coup in October 1969.
After the dictator Mohamed Said Barre increased and accused human rights abuses against Somaliland people, the officials from Somaliland announced and founded the Somali National Movement (SNM) in London, UK, on April 6, 1981. The aim of SNM was to relieve or burden off pressure on the people of Somaliland through military power.
Since the establishment of SNM, the Somaliland liberation war has begun, and SNM has become the first and most organized anti-Siyad Barre regime armed movement.
After nearly a decade of non-stop genocide against the people of Somaliland that cost 100,000 up to 200,000 civilian deaths, more than half a million people were displaced and became refugees in camps in Ethiopia, and they also destroyed the towns in the northern regions of the Somali Republic, which is Somaliland today, as the International Human Rights Organizations reported and registered. The SNM troops had successfully defeated Siyad Barre’s troops, which were the second-largest power in Africa in 1991.
Author: Adnan Isaq Ali, a diplomat in Johannesburg, South Africa.
First secretary of the Somaliland Diplomatic Mission in South Africa.