Somaliland, a separatist-controlled region in the northwest of Somalia, has offered Israel and the US more than 7.5% of its soldiers for deployment to Gaza as part of the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) under Donald Trump’s so-called Board of Peace.
It is the largest percentage of troop strength offered so far for the ISF, which is tasked, among other things, with disarming Hamas. With Indonesia indefinitely suspending its commitment of 8,000 troops earlier in March, the contingent offered by Somaliland is also the largest in absolute numbers.
Yet Somaliland is not even a country. The UN and African Union regard it as part of Somalia. No country except Israel recognises the secessionist regime’s claim to sovereign statehood.
It has only 25,000 soldiers, plus 1,500 coast guard personnel. From this small force, Somaliland’s president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, has offered 2,000 soldiers in what would be its first-ever foreign deployment, if his offer is accepted.
He is only waiting to be asked for troops by the US or Israel, he told the Jerusalem Post in an interview on the sidelines of the MEAD conference in Washington, DC. “If they ask me, I am ready,” he said. His readiness comes at a time when Somaliland has already lost over half of the territory it had once claimed.
