Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is an unrecognised state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as de jure part of Somalia.[6][7][8] It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the south and west, and Somalia to the east.[9][10][11][12] Its claimed territory has an area of 176,120 square kilometres (68,000 sq mi),[13] with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021.[4] The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The Government of Somaliland regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which, as the briefly independent State of Somaliland, united from 1960 to 1991 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic.[14]
Since 1991, the territory has been governed by democratically elected governments that seek international recognition as the government of the Republic of Somaliland.[15][16][17][18] The central government maintains informal ties with some foreign governments, who have sent delegations to Hargeisa.[19][20][21] Somaliland is currently recognised by the Republic of China (Taiwan)[22] and hosts representative offices from several other countries, most notably Ethiopia.[23] However, Somaliland's self-proclaimed independence has not been officially recognised by any UN member state or international organisation.[19][24][25] It is the largest unrecognised state in the world by de facto controlled land area. It is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, an advocacy group whose members consist of indigenous peoples, minorities and unrecognised or occupied territories.[26]
The name Somaliland is derived from two words: "Somali" and "land". The area was named when Britain took control from the Egyptian administration in 1884, after signing successive treaties with the ruling Somali Sultans from the Isaaq, Issa, Gadabursi, and Warsangali clans. The British established a protectorate in the region referred to as British Somaliland. In 1960, when the protectorate became independent from Britain, it was called State of Somaliland. Four days later, on 1 July 1960, Somaliland united with Italian Somaliland. The name "Republic of Somaliland" was taken upon the declaration of independence following the Somali Civil War in 1991.[27]
At the Grand conference in Burao held in 1991 many names for the country were suggested, including Puntland, in reference to Somaliland's location in the ancient Land of Punt and which is now the name of the Puntland state in neighbouring Somalia, and Shankaroon, meaning "better than five" in Somali, in reference to the five regions of Greater Somalia.[28]
The area of Somaliland was inhabited around 10,000 years ago during the Neolithic age.[29][30] The ancient shepherds raised cows and other livestock and created vibrant rock art paintings. During the Stone Age, the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished here.[31] The oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somaliland dating back to the 4th millennium BCE.[32] The stone implements from the Jalelo site in the north were also characterised in 1909 as important artefacts demonstrating the archaeological universality during the Paleolithic between the East and the West.[33]
According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing Neolithic period from the family's proposed urheimat ("original homeland") in the Nile Valley,[34] or the Near East.[35]