Saturday 21,Dec,2024 {HMC} Trump’s entourage is pushing for the US to recognise Somaliland, with Senate committee leadership also favouring the breakaway province.
The Somali embassy has hired one of Washington’s top lobbying firms as it braces for a potentially rocky road ahead under President-elect Donald Trump.
Barely two months into his tenure, Ambassador Dahir Abdi hired the BGR Group on 27 November for $50,000 per month for 12 months, or $600,000 total. The contract filed with the US Department of Justice states that BGR will provide “government affairs services” for the embassy.
Top of mind for the Somali government is the growing push for the US to recognise the breakaway region of Somaliland as an independent country, particularly among Republicans. Since last year, Somalia has also pursued eligibility for the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
Relations with the US suffered a blow in Trump’s first term.
The then-president included Somalia in his “Muslim ban” on travel from certain countries and later pulled most US forces battling Islamist insurgents out of the country at the tail end of his first term. President Joe Biden reversed the decision in 2021.
“Somalia and the US are natural partners,” the Somali Embassy tells The Africa Report. “We continue [to] work together on counterterrorism and other important security programmes. We also look forward to expanding that work and the economic relationship to our mutual benefit.”
Somaliland fight
This time around, a growing chorus of Republicans in Trump’s orbit is making the case that he should recognise Somaliland’s independence as a hedge against China in the Horn of Africa.
Countering China policies “should include … recognition of Somaliland statehood as a hedge against the US’ deteriorating position in Djibouti,” former Trump State Department director of Policy Planning Kiron Skinner writes in the diplomacy section of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for a Republican administration led by the Heritage Foundation.
Several Republican veterans of the first Trump administration – including former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy and former special envoy for the Great Lakes Peter Pham – are also publicly making that case.
Last week, Republican Congressman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced a bill “to recognise Somaliland of the Federal Republic of Somalia as a separate, independent country”. Perry introduced similar legislation two years ago but it went nowhere.
“We want to keep the conversation open and current,” Perry tells The Africa Report about his decision to introduce the bill in the waning days of the current Congress.
Republican Congressman Brian Mast of Florida, the incoming chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the next Congress, tells The Africa Report that he has yet to speak to Perry about his bill.
“I’m certainly willing to … sit with him, look at it, see what he’s done on it, and speak to the African subcommittee as well,” Mast says.
Senate Somaliland boosters
Meanwhile, in the Senate, Somaliland advocate Jim Risch of Idaho is set to take control of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next year following the Republican victory in the November election. Risch introduced a Somaliland Partnership Act in 2022 that stops short of recognition but promotes opportunities for collaboration on regional security issues.
Lobbyists registered on the contract include Lester Munson, a former Republican chief of staff on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Scott Eisner, former president of the US Chamber of Commerce’s US-Africa Business Centre.
BGR previously lobbied for the Somali Ministry of Finance in 2018-2019.
