Sunday 15 March, 2025 {HMC} Realizing us could be an’ announcement’ of this deal behind closed doors, a formal recognition of Somaliland by Washington was meandering amongst U.S. and Somaliland discussants: call up the Financial Times.
A senior U.S. official who spoke on the agreement of not having his name in print told the Financial Times that the Trump administration has already initiated discussions with Somaliland’s leadership in opening the door for formal recognition. But these talks are sensitive affairs, however, given that there are yet to be some vital appointments made by the Trump administration to oversee African affairs.
The reported discussions focus on U.S. interests in securing a long-term military presence at Berbera-superdeep-water-deep-water along the Gulf of Aden, and that has become a focal point of geopolitics competition in Eastern Africa.
The U.S. is now also concerned with the growing investment from China in the region, after the Chinese secured a military base in neighbouring Djibouti.
The actual details of the discussions remain unclear, but, according to the Financial Times, the proposal includes recognition by the U.S. of Somaliland as an independent state in exchange for exclusive rights to place a base in Berbera.
The report also suggested that during the talks the U.S. floated the possibility of moving displaced Palestinians out of Gaza into Somaliland, though it was not a central issue of the talks.
The offer follows on the heels of international outcry over a separate U.S.-Israeli plan to resettle Palestinians in African countries that most regional governments have broadly rejected. On Friday, Foreign Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi also denied that Mogadishu had been approached or engaged in dialogue on the resettling of Gazans in the country.
“The Federal Government of Somalia remains steadfastly with our Palestinian brethren and sisters in their legitimate struggle for sovereignty and self-determination.
Any plan aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians from their land will not be endorsed by the federal government of Somalia.”
