Yemen at the heart of Israel’s push for a military foothold in Somaliland

Israel’s alliance with Somaliland is gathering steam. The settler-state appears is expanding its military footprint in the region and, as diplomatic relations grow closer than ever, Israel seems likely to  get what it wants.

On 13 June, Drop Site News reported that in an unprecedented display of support, the Muslim-majority nation witnessed “the public waving of Israeli flags—not in protest, but celebration.”

They added that:

Videos shared on social media from Somaliland’s day of independence on May 18 showed Israelis dancing in the streets of Hargeisa alongside locals, with blue and white stars of David flying beside Somaliland’s red, white, and green tricolor flag.

As the Canary reported on 21 May:

Israel and Somaliland have agreed to open embassies in Jerusalem and Hargeisa. Israel’s influence in the strategic Horn of Africa is growing. And there have been warnings Israel might ethnically cleanse Palestinians out of Palestine and into the country.

Israel was one of the first countries to recognise Somaliland, a breakaway territory of Somalia, in the early 1990s. UN members railed against the move, but the US defended Israel while not recognising Somaliland itself.

The surest sign of deepening ties between the settler-colony and fledgling Somaliland emerged on 18 May when president Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi was presented with:

a fragment of an Iron Dome interceptor—the Israeli air defense system used to intercept rockets and drones fired by Iran and its regional allies—by a visiting Israeli delegation.

Israel’s dirty war with Yemen

Nearby Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden, is seemingly Israel’s principal concern. According to Drop Site, Israel has been eyeing up locations for a military facility:

The base in question would allow Israel a military foothold on a crucial waterway near the Bab al-Mandab Strait—a maritime chokepoint comparable in importance to the Strait of Hormuz for exports from the Red Sea.

The outlet underlined a critical observation by pundits and analysts:

Berbera International Airport as a possible host to an expanded Israeli presence in the territory as part of an emerging alliance that would include Somaliland alongside Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi.

The UAE which is already active in the Sudan civil war, has an agreement at the airport.

Ismail Omar Guelleh, president of nearby Djibouti — home to a major US military base — has described the UAE as Israel’s “vanguard,” while Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud accused Israel of:

taking advantage of the long-standing dispute between Mogadishu and Hargeisa.

Abdullahi visited Israel on 14 June, and posted the following message on X:

For thirty-five years, the people of Somaliland have built a peaceful, democratic, and resilient nation. We asked the world: Do you see us? Israel answered first.

Today, history is being written, and Somaliland stands ready to forge a shared future founded on friendship, cooperation, and mutual respect.

A shared future is one way of putting it; another is ‘neocolonialism’. Somaliland is a key strategic location for Israeli power projection against Yemen. The statelet may also come to be a dumping ground for ethnically cleansed Palestinians.

Somaliland has struck a devil’s bargain with Israel, which, it may come to regret.

Featured image via YouTube / the Canary

By Joe Glenton