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Somaliland

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Somaliland

Constitution of Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin Vice-President Ahmed Yusuf Yasin Parliament House of Elders House of Representatives Political parties Politicians Elections President 2003 Parliament 2005 Regions Foreign relations Military of Somaliland See also: Politics of Somalia

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Due to its unrecognized status, The Republic of Somaliland has no official contacts with any other nation. The current foreign policy of Somaliland is to try to secure international recognition as a sovereign, stable country, so that international aid can be more readilly secured.

Somaliland was independent for a few days in 1960, between the end of British colonial rule and its union with the former Italian colony of Somalia, remaining so until the unilateral declaration of reestablishing its independence in 1991. Somaliland's claims to sovereignty rests on this former status. In addition to this, the fact that the rest of Somalia is in a state of anarchy while Somaliland is under stable government also lends credence to its claim.

The attitude of the United Nations and the African Union on the preservation of existing national borders has so far prevented recognition of Somaliland, despite the examples of the former status of British Somaliland, and the fact that Eritrea successfully broke away from Ethiopia and became a recognized country.

An African Union fact-finding mission which visited Somaliland early 2005 recently published a report that recommended favorable consideration for recognizing Somaliland's independence. ^[1]

Contents 1 Foreign Minister 2 Diplomatic Representative Offices 3 Disputes 4 Organizational Membership 5 References

Abdillahi Mohamed Dualeh is the current Foreign Minister of Somaliland, the Foreign Minister has held this office since 2006.

As Somaliland is so far not recognized as sovereign by any other country, no embassies are located in Somaliland. Somaliland does have representative offices in several countries, but these missions do not have formal diplomatic status under the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Such offices exist in the following places:

• Djibouti
• Ethiopia
• Italy
• United Kingdom
• United States of America

Somaliland is in dispute with the neighbouring autonomous Somali region of Puntland over the Sanaag and Sool areas, some of whose inhabitants owe their allegiance to Puntland.

Somaliland's leaders have distanced themselves from Somalia's central transitional government, set up in 2004 following long-running talks in Kenya, which they see as a threat to Somaliland's autonomy.

Somaliland is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO).

• ↑  "Somaliland: AU Mission to Somaliland Says Recognition Overdue", UNPO, 1 Mar 2006.
• "AU supports Somali split", Mail & Guardian, 10 Feb 2006.