From what I understand, they basically run the entire chunk of land themselves. They have foreign relations and they seem pretty independent. But noone has recognised them. So… why? Am I missing smth?
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In addition to what others have said, the international community has spent a *lot* of time and resources trying to re-establish a functioning central government in Somalia after a long-running civil war, with deeply mixed results at best.
If that same community were to recognize Somaliland, it would undermine all their work setting up a government in Mogadishu if they then told that government ‘we’re recognizing this breakaway region and eroding your authority, because frankly, they’re doing a much better job of running things than you.’
In turn, this would risk weakening the ongoing regional fight against Al-Shabaab, the local rebel group that seeks to establish their own theocratic government and has carried out attacks beyond Somali territory.
(Supplemental context: Somalia briefly *had* something of a functioning national government in the aughts, courtesy of the Islamic Courts Union. This government was deposed by a US-backed invasion from Ethiopia, partly driven by the fear that the ICU would become an African Taliban. Ironically, this invasion led to the rise of Al-Shabaab in fighting foreign forces, and they’re more like an African Taliban than the ICU ever was. It’s a giant mess that doesn’t get talked about much in Western media.)
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