Thousands Rally Outside UN Headquarters as Somaliland Leaders Press for Recognition

By: Mohamed Duale

NEW YORK, Sept. 23 (Horndiplomat) — Thousands of Somalilanders gathered near United Nations headquarters in New York on Wednesday to demand international recognition, joined by senior officials as world leaders met for the UN General Assembly’s high-level week.

The rally at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza brought together members of the Somaliland diaspora from the United States and Canada, the speaker of Somaliland’s House of Representatives and government officials.

“We are here today to demand our undeniable right, the fact that Somaliland is an independent country,” Foreign Minister Abdirahman Dahir Aden Bakaal told the crowd.

“We have never been part of Somalia,” Bakaal said, adding that Somaliland had never joined Somalia’s federal system.

“It’s time for the United Nations to look at Somaliland,” he said. “You can deny for so long, but you cannot deny forever.”

Bakaal said recognition would contribute to peace and stability across the region.

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Dr. Abdirahman Beileh, the president’s adviser on economic development, invoked Somaliland’s independence from Britain on June 26, 1960, as he urged the UN to consider its claim.

“We need our seat back. We are not asking for anything that does not belong to us,” Beileh told the rally.

Somaliland’s representative to the United States, Bashir Goth, led repeated calls for recognition. “We are here to demand the United Nations give Somaliland the seat it deserves,” he said.

Somaliland declared the restoration of its sovereignty in 1991 and has since sought wider international recognition. Wednesday’s demonstration brought that campaign to the UN’s doorstep during one of the busiest weeks of the diplomatic calendar.

(Reporting by HornDiplomat  News Desk)