Somalia President Sheikh Mohamud slams Israel
CAPTION: Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, left, being received in Djibouti recently. (File photo).
By Agencies
MOGADISHU – Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has denounced Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, accusing Tel Aviv of exploiting the dispute between Mogadishu and the breakaway region.
On Saturday June13th, 2026, he said Israel’s recognition of the region marks one of the darkest days in Somalia’s history.
“Tel Aviv is taking advantage of the long-standing dispute between Mogadishu and Hargeisa,” Mohamud said in an interview with Dawan TV, a local media station based in Mogadishu.
He said Mogadishu has considered two possible paths to address the issue of the breakaway region and they chose dialogue and persuasion over force.
“Though it took over 30 years, it was the most suitable approach under the circumstances,” he said.
Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is a self-declared independent state in the Horn of Africa. Bordered by Ethiopia, Djibouti, and the Gulf of Aden, it has a population of roughly 6.2 million and its capital is Hargeisa. While it functions as a stable, democratic nation, it remains largely unrecognized globally.
Somaliland was originally the British Somaliland protectorate until it gained independence and merged with Italian Somaliland to form Somalia in 1960. Following the collapse of the Somali central government and a brutal civil war in the 1980s, Somaliland declared its independence from the rest of Somalia in May 1991.
