Head of British Office in Hargeisa Honours Somaliland Camel Corps on Remembrance Day

By: Mohamed Duale

HARGEISA, Nov 11 (Horndiplomat) — Louise Hancock, head of the British Office in Hargeisa, visited a war memorial in Somaliland’s capital on Wednesday to mark Remembrance Day, honouring the Somaliland Camel Corps and others who served alongside British forces during both World Wars.

Hancock was accompanied by Tatiana Fernandes, a development counsellor with Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office based in Hargeisa.

“Today, on #RemembranceDay in Hargeisa, we honour all who served and sacrificed, among them the Somaliland Camel Corps, who fought alongside British forces in both World Wars, as did so many across Africa,” Hancock wrote on X.

“We will remember them.”

Established in March 1914, the Somaliland Camel Corps recruited local soldiers who served under British officers. Its mounted troops drew on local knowledge and experience to operate across Somaliland’s dry terrain, according to Britain’s National Army Museum.

The corps served during both World Wars, and its First World War dead are commemorated on the memorial in Hargeisa. During the Second World War, its men helped defend Somaliland against the Italian invasion in 1940, including in the fighting at Tug Argan.

Somaliland’s wider wartime contribution included the 71st (Somaliland) Battalion of the King’s African Rifles, which served in Burma. The Illalos, a locally recruited irregular force, carried out raids alongside the Camel Corps against Italian frontier posts in 1940, while the Somaliland Scouts later patrolled the Protectorate’s borders and protected military communications.

Hancock’s tribute recognised Somaliland servicemen’s contribution alongside that of soldiers from across Africa, recalling a shared wartime history between Somaliland and Britain.