APCJ_1528_Win2010_00i_122_4 12/30/10 3:22 PM Page 6 6 AFRICA PEACE AND CONFLICT JOURNAL SOMALILAND Somaliland is located in the eastern region of the Horn of Africa, separated from Yemen and Saudi Arabia to the north by the Gulf of Aden, with Djibouti to the west, Ethiopia to the south, and what was once known as Italian Somalia to the east.18 Somaliland’s territory, some 67,000 square miles, was controlled by the British before 1960 and is approximately the size of England, with an estimated population of 3.5 million. Most Somalilanders are nomadic but an increasing number are becoming pastoral-nomadic farmers. Drought and related issues affecting the export of goods have led in the last ten years to an influx of people to urban areas. In June 1960, the colonial powers withdrew from Greater Somalia, which included regions in the west and south of Somalia, Puntland in the northeast, and Somaliland in the northwest. The UN Trustee Council granted it independence on 1 July 1960, at which point it became the Somali Republic.19 This new union faced a number of challenges, including integrating different legal systems carried over from the colonial period. Italian law had been practiced in the western and southern regions and British law in the northwestern region, creating a governing disconnect among the newly united territories.20 In addition, the Somali Republic had historically been without a central government, instead having a society governed by clan structures and traditional problem-solving mechanisms. The citizens of the new political entity were therefore ill-equipped for and distrustful of a central governing authority.21 The seizure of power by Mohamed Siad Barre in a military coup in 1969 exacerbated the issues that Somaliland experienced in the Somalia union.22 Power had largely been concentrated in the southern region, so Puntland and Somaliland had little representation in Mogadishu, the capital. Along with geographical distance, clan identity differences created a sense of alienation and isolation from the central government. Distrust and discontent set in, which led a group of businessmen, religious leaders, intellectuals, and former army officers to form the Somali National Movement (SNM) in 1981. The SNM sought independence from the Barre government and fought to secure it over the next decade. The SNM eventually prevailed, and Somaliland seceded from the Somali Democratic Republic in May 1991.23 18. M. Bradbury and the Catholic Institute for International Relations, Becoming Somaliland (London, Progessio, 2008); S. Shay, Somalia between Jihad and Restoration (New Brunswick, New Jersey, Transaction Publishers, 2008); S. H. MacCallum, ‘The rule of law without the state’, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 12 September 2007, http://mises.org/daily/2701. 19. I. M. Lewis, ‘Visible and invisible differences: The Somali paradox’, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 74:4 (2004), 489–515. 20. M. Brons, Society, Security, Sovereignty, and the State in Somalia: From Statelessness to Statelessness? (Utrecht, International Books, 2001); M. Michaelson, ‘The painful road to reconstruction’, Africa Today, 40:2 (1993), 53–73. 21. M. Notten and S. H. MacCallum, The Law of the Somalis (Trenton, New Jersey, Red Sea Press, 2006). 22. Shay, Somalia between Jihad and Restoration. 23. A. M. Hashi, ‘The implications of traditional leadership, “Guurti” and other non-state actors in local governance in Somaliland’, World Bank, 2005, www.mbali.info/doc238.htm; K. Menkhaus, ‘State collapse in Somalia: Second thoughts’, Review of African Political Economy, 30:97 (2003), 405–422; A. I. Samatar, The Somali Challenge: From Catastrophe to Renewal? (Boulder, Colorado, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994).