Somaliland hopes for international recognition

[Jacaylbaro]

When you land at the clean, tidy airport in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, you feel you could have arrived in any small African state.

 

The police are courteous and wear freshly-pressed uniforms, the Somaliland flag flutters gently in the hot morning breeze, and you move briskly through the airport security.

 

The taxi you take into town is paid for in Somaliland's currency, the shilling.

 

But do not get carried away - despite the outward trappings of statehood, this is a country that does not officially exist.

 

Somaliland unilaterally declared its independence from the rest of Somalia in May 1991, after the fall of the country's military strongman, Mohamed Siad Barre.

 

He fled the country exactly 20 years ago on Wednesday, after two decades in power.

Monument

 

I made my way to Freedom Square in central Hargeisa to see the monument, which reminds those here of the bitter battle they fought to break away from the rest of Somalia. Around 50,000 people died.

 

The actual fighter jet used by Barre's forces to bomb the city is on a dais, underneath the figure of a woman holding the green, white and red of the Somaliland flag, looking skywards in hope.

 

There, I spoke to a local journalist, Albdelhakim Mohamed from the Jumhuriya newspaper.

 

"We want our independence here in Somaliland," he told me.

 

"We have a country. We have a parliament, a free press, and businesses just like London and New York."

 

At the base of the monument, a body lay wrapped in cardboard.

 

At first I was not sure if it was part of the display, then I realised it was just a homeless man who had spent the night at its foot.

 

Around the monument is also a market where goods of all kinds are readily available.

 

Traditional spices mingle with the ubiquitous plastic of Chinese imports, brightly coloured sandals, plastic buckets and hair decorations.

 

 

Vital remittances

 

I walked through the market with Abdirashid Duale, the head of Dahabshiil, Africa's largest money transfer company.

 

Tall, elegant and expensively clad - his company makes a lot of money here - he was reticent to commit to whether Somaliland should be recognised as independent; after all, his business interests extend all over Somalia.

 

When I ask him whether Somaliland's unofficial status affects business, he admits it is a challenge.

 

But Dahabshiil, like other financial corporations in the 21st Century, can base its headquarters anywhere in the world these days. Mr Duale spends most of his time in neighbouring Kenya.

 

From the people I chatted to informally in Hargeisa, I was left with the overwhelming impression that they would find it hard to re-integrate into the rest of Somalia.

 

Though with the Somaliland government so intent on independence it is hard to know if some were reluctant to speak their minds too freely.

 

 

 

 

READ MORE + Pictures: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12279880