The Times of Israel has published 18 separate articles this month on its blog page calling on 15 different countries and three regional organisations to recognise the sovereignty of Somaliland.
The first blog, purportedly written by a retired Canadian doctor, appeared on 7 January with the headline, “Recognizing Somaliland Would Be in Canada’s Interest”, while the most recent one was published today with the title, “Recognizing Somaliland Would Be in France’s Interest”.
Between these dates, an author - referred to as Mohamed Osman - published blogs with the same headline format in which he called on India, the UK, Ethiopia, the European Union, Kenya, Somalia, the Arab League, the African Union, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Canada (for the second time), Argentina, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Sweden and Germany to “formally recognize the Republic of Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state within its 1960 borders”.
The blogs were published on 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (African Union and Turkey), 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26 and 27 January, with Osman taking a break from addressing the interests of various countries on 25 January to write a piece headlined, “Israel and Somaliland Cooperation in Healthcare”.
The articles are all virtually identical, with even the separate identities of the countries sometimes put to one side. Making his case for India, Osman argues that “formal recognition by Canada would reaffirm the nation’s commitment to democratic values and human rights”.
They contain the same potted history of Somaliland, a former British colony and breakaway region of Somalia that has its own government, and the same passage hailing the UAE’s DP World for its “milestone” investment in the Somaliland port of Berbera, which MEE recently revealed is co-owned by the British government through its foreign investment arm.
Osman also writes that Somaliland sits along the Bab al-Mandab strait, “a critical chokepoint where roughly 10 percent of global trade and a sizable portion of Europe’s energy supplies pass”. This strategic location has not been lost on the UAE, which has a naval base at Berbera, and Israel, which wants to establish a military presence there.