By Dr. Mohamed Osman
May 16, 2026 · Member of the Society · Published at The Times of Israel (Blogs)
Dr. Mohamed Osman
Member of the Society · Writer at The Times of Israel
Retired physician and public-health specialist from Somaliland, based in Canada, with career service at Ottawa Public Health and Alberta Health Services — and a long-standing voice for Somaliland's international recognition.
Thirty-five years after the re-declaration of independence — a nation moving from petitioner to player.
Marking thirty-five years since the re-declaration of independence, Dr. Osman describes a country that has stopped asking and started asserting. The Somaliland of 2026, he writes, no longer petitions the world for validation — it negotiates from its assets: a strategic coastline, a working port, and a functioning democracy.
The record speaks for itself: three and a half decades of internal stability and institutional government while much of the region burned — practical sovereignty, whatever the legal textbooks say. The DP World partnership at Berbera, the port memorandum with Ethiopia, and finally Israel's recognition in December 2025 are all fruits of that patient credibility.
He does not gloss over the headwinds — Mogadishu treats the Israeli recognition as a violation of its sovereignty, and parts of Somaliland's own conservative society are uneasy about ties with Israel. But the trajectory of the essay is unmistakable: a nation moving from the waiting room to the table.
This is the Society's summary — the full article, in the author's own words, is at The Times of Israel.
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