The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Somalia has this Tuesday expressed its rejection "in the most forceful terms" of Somaliland's decision to accept the credentials of the ambassador of Israel and to lay the first stone of its future diplomatic headquarters in Hargeisa, the capital of this Somali secessionist territory, an initiative which Mogadishu considers "risks exacerbating tensions in a region that is already, by its very nature, fragile".
In an official note, the Somali ministry "condemns, in the most forceful terms, the alleged accreditation of an ambassador by Israel in Hargeisa, as well as the laying of the first stone of what is intended to be called an embassy in Somali territory".
The communiqué stresses that these actions have been "carried out without the consent of the Federal Government of Somalia, constitute a flagrant violation of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of Somalia", and underscores that "Somalia rejects them as null and void, lacking any validity and without any legal effect". "No unilateral act can bypass that requirement or alter the status of Somali territory", the text insists.
Foreign Affairs also emphasizes that "Hargeisa and the Somaliland region remain an integral and inseparable part of the Federal Republic of Somalia", and links these steps to the recognition granted by the Government of Israel to Somaliland in December 2025.
Along these lines, the Ministry criticizes a policy that "encourages fragmentation and ignores internationally recognized borders" and that "risks exacerbating tensions in a region that is already, by its very nature, fragile", in a context "marked by increased insecurity in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden", referring to the conflict facing Yemen's Houthi insurgency with the internationally recognized Executive and the coalition led by Saudi Arabia.
"Somalia demands that Israel immediately reverse these measures, and urges all States and international organizations to reject them and to refrain from any type of interaction that could confer legitimacy upon them", concludes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which warns that "the Federal Government reserves the right to adopt all relevant diplomatic, political and legal measures, in accordance with International Law, to defend the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the country".