Against this backdrop, competition among regional and extra-regional powers to entrench political, security, and economic influence in the Horn of Africa has intensified, turning Somaliland into one of the main focal points of this rivalry. In this context, the Israeli regime, recognizing the region’s growing importance in maritime security calculations and the broader balance of power, is moving to expand its role and presence in Somaliland. Such a move could carry significant implications for the power configuration in the Horn of Africa and even for geopolitical dynamics in West Asia.
Within this framework, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced late Friday that the regime has recognized the “Somaliland region” as an “independent and sovereign state.” The announcement was made during a ceremony attended by Netanyahu, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, the self-proclaimed president of Somaliland, during which the parties signed a joint document on mutual recognition.
Speaking at the ceremony, Netanyahu said the move was “in the spirit of the Abraham Accords, initiated under US President Donald Trump.” He also announced the immediate launch of cooperation with Somaliland in agriculture, healthcare, technology, and the economy, and invited the region’s leader to visit occupied Palestine.
For his part, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi said in a statement that Somaliland would join the Abraham Accords, describing the step as a move toward regional and global peace. He stressed that his country is committed to building reciprocal partnerships aimed at economic growth and stability in West Asia and Africa.
The Israeli decision drew negative reactions from Somali and the surrounding countries.
Somaliland is an autonomous region in Horn of Africa and in the southern coasts of Gulf of Aden. Somaliland is the name adopted by the clans of Somalia’s five northern provinces after they declared independence from the country in 1991. However, Somaliland is not a member of the UN and is internationally recognized only as an autonomous region of Somalia. As such, the Israeli regime has become the first actor to recognize Somaliland, despite the fact that the regime itself has yet to be recognized as a state by many Islamic countries.
Tel Aviv’s recent decision to recognize Somaliland can be assessed from several different angles.
Securing maritime trade
Trade and maritime security are among the key factors driving Israeli leaders to sharpen their focus on Somaliland.
Thanks to its strategic location near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea, Somaliland plays a critical role in regional and international maritime trade. This vital chokepoint is one of the main corridors for the transfer of energy, goods, and essential commodities between the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. From Tel Aviv’s perspective, cooperation with Somaliland translates into securing these crucial shipping lanes and preventing potential disruptions to commercial maritime traffic.
Over the past two years, amid the fallout from genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, Israeli-linked vessels have faced serious restrictions while transiting the Red Sea, with maritime traffic along this international route at times coming to a near standstill. Against this backdrop, cooperation with Somaliland offers the Israeli regime an opportunity to strengthen its maritime security and early-warning systems and, through the exchange of strategic intelligence, reduce the risk of future disruptions to sea-borne trade.
Moreover, expanding influence over Somaliland’s ports, particularly the port of Berbera, would enable the Israelis to exercise greater control over trade and energy flows while limiting the presence of rival actors or threat-generating groups. As a result, Somaliland has emerged as a key node in Israel’s maritime and economic security calculus, with its strategic importance to the regime steadily growing.
Countering Yemen’s Ansarullah threats
Another reason why Israel is cozying up to Somaliland is to address the threats posed by Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement that has been holding northern Yemen and the capital Sana’a since 2014 revolution. The movement, having imposed a trade ban on Israel and seized its vessels and attacked it with missiles and drones in solidarity with Gaza, is now perceived as one of the biggest security obsessions of Tel Aviv.
The issue has become so worrisome for Israeli decision-makers that it is explicitly referenced in the regime’s own strategic documents. In an article published in November by Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), the authors note: “Israel needs allies in the Red Sea region for multiple strategic reasons, including a potential campaign against Yemen’s Ansarallah. From this perspective, Somaliland is an ideal candidate for such cooperation, as it could provide Israel with potential access to an operational area close to the zone of conflict.”
Given Israeli security doctrines, Somaliland’s geographic proximity to Yemen offers the occupying regime a strategic vantage point from which to monitor Ansarallah’s activities and identify potential threats before they materialize. Moreover, a presence in Somaliland would enable direct control and close surveillance of sensitive maritime and coastal areas, helping to curb the expansion of Ansarallah’s influence.
From this standpoint, Israel’s recognition of Somaliland goes beyond a purely diplomatic gesture and functions as a practical tool for ensuring security and defending against direct threats emanating from Yemen. The port of Berbera, in particular, could serve as a logistical hub for any future operations in the region.
The timing of this move, alongside Emirati activities and those of its proxy forces in southern Yemen, points to a clear strategic alignment between Tel Aviv and its allies. Israel and the United Arab Emirates are seeking to transform southern Yemen into a controlled zone, restricting Ansarallah’s access to the Red Sea as well as the region’s oil and gas resources. After military options pursued by Tel Aviv and Washington over the past two years failed to force Ansarallah into retreat, the Netanyahu government has shifted toward creating a security belt stretching from southern Yemen to Somaliland in an effort to minimize the group’s perceived threats.
This strategy underscores Tel Aviv’s push to establish a broad security network along vital maritime routes and across areas bordering Yemen, aimed at managing Ansarallah-related threats and consolidating its influence in the southern Red Sea.
However, Ansarallah leaders say they are fully aware of what they describe as their adversaries’ adventurism. In this context, Mohammed al-Farrah, a member of Ansarallah’s political bureau, said recent developments in southern Yemen are intended to turn the region into a platform for unchecked foreign penetration, the implementation of external agendas, and the groundwork for a direct Israeli presence. He warned of the consequences of what he termed the occupiers’ presence in southern Yemen, stressing that such moves pose a serious threat to regional security and Yemen’s stability.
Ansarallah leader Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi echoed these warnings in his Friday speech, saying: “We are preparing for the next round of battle and working on this day and night, because we know what is happening, what our enemies are seeking, and what plans they have. We are not closing our eyes or ignoring developments; we must remain at the highest level of vigilance and readiness.”
Somaliland as a destination for displaced Gazans
Due to its proximity to West Asia and vital energy lanes, Horn of Africa has a key role in the region’s geopolitics. With recognition of Somaliland, Tel Aviv gets a security and political foothold in this region and so bolster military, intelligence, and economic cooperation with this region. Influence in Horn of Africa will enable Tel Aviv better watch regional developments and moves of foreign powers in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Over the long term, cooperation with Somaliland could lay the groundwork for durable partnerships in technology, infrastructure, and maritime security.
At the same time, as Netanyahu’s cabinet pursues plans to relocate Gaza’s residents outside the occupied territories in an effort to reduce perceived security threats to Israeli settlers, Somaliland has emerged as one of the key options under consideration for implementing this project.
In August, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Tel Aviv was in talks with five entities, Indonesia, Somaliland, Uganda, South Sudan, and Libya, over the potential resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza who would be forcibly displaced from the enclave.
Against this backdrop, Tel Aviv appears intent on exploiting Somaliland’s strategic location and the absence of serious international obstacles to transfer part of Gaza’s population to the region and resettle them in designated areas under a tightly controlled framework.
This move, coinciding with intensified military and economic pressure on Gaza, reflects Tel Aviv’s broader effort to reduce the Palestinian population and manage its internal security crisis within the occupied territories. Proximity to Somaliland would allow Israeli authorities to maintain direct oversight and tight control over the living conditions of displaced Palestinians.
In general, experience over the past decade has shown that Israeli-Arab pressure has failed to force Ansarallah to quit its resistance identity and stances. As a result, recent moves by the UAE and the Israeli regime in southern Yemen and Somaliland are unlikely to guarantee Israeli security. On the contrary, by escalating militarization in the Red Sea, these actions are likely to expose the occupied territories to even greater threats from Yemeni resistance groups.
In other words, the Israeli efforts to ensure their security through building influence in sensitive regions are not only far from effective but also will stir further tensions and clashes in the region.
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