Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland has rejected an attempt by the central government to give the US exclusive control of a port and airbase in Berbera. The city lies on the strategic Gulf of Aden, on the northern coast of Somaliland. The territory, which declared independence in 1991 as Somalia descended into civil war, says the facilities are not Mogadishu’s to give away. In a letter to US President Donald Trump, seen by Reuters news agency, Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud also offered port and airbase within Somalia, saying all four would strengthen US security operations. Somaliland’s Foreign Affairs Minister Abdirahman Dahir Aden dismissed the move as ‘desperate’. Signals given before Trump began his second term have given Somalilanders hope that the US may become the world’s first country to recognise the self-declared republic, which has functioned as a de facto state for nearly 34 years.” (03/30/25)