Category Archives: Somalia

A Poisoned Gift? Israel’s Recognition of Somaliland

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This is a translation (by Claude.ai, revised by the author) of an article I published in The Conversation France on 30 December.

Israel surprised the world by recognising Somaliland on Friday, 26 December. What are the reasons behind this unexpected announcement, and what outcomes is it likely to produce?

A Diplomatic Anomaly

The republic of Somaliland, formed in 1991, is independent in all but name, yet Israel is the first sovereign state to recognise it. For all other countries and international organisations, Somaliland remains under the authority of the Somali state, from which the republic seceded after a war with genocidal characteristics in the late 1980s.

Today, Somalia’s federal government, established with international support in 2012 after decades of civil war, is beset by attacks from Al-Shabaab and the Islamic State, suffers from corruption on a record scale and experiences persistently high levels of political instability. Federal Somalia still lacks a constitution, universal elections and several of its constitutive regions refuse to submit to the federal authorities. By contrast, Somaliland is a democratic and stable haven, with its own constitution, a reasonably functioning electoral political system, its own currency, and an army.

Google Earth view of Berbera port
The UAE in 2017 entered into a multi-billion$ deal with Somaliland and Ethiopia to develop the port of Berbera (above right) and transport infrastructure – the Berbera corridor – to rid landlocked Ethiopia from its dependence on Djibouti for shipping. A military base in and around the airport (below left) was also part of the deal but never constructed. Courtesy of Google Earth

President Abdirahman Irro was undoubtedly in need of good news. After his victory on 13 November 2024, his government became bogged down in the clan conflicts it had inherited and made little progress on critical fronts such as youth employment, economic growth, and inflation. Following Israel’s announcement, jubilant crowds took to the streets of Hargeisa, Somaliland’s capital.

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Participation à l’émission “En Somalie : Al-Chabab, un Etat parallèle”

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Je suis intervenu dans le programme ‘Cultures Monde’ de Julie Gacon sur France Culture (Radio France) le 12 novembre 2025 pour parler de Al Shabaab et le défi qu’ils posent au projet de gouvernance transnationale par la communauté internationale.

https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/cultures-monde/en-somalie-al-chabab-un-etat-parallele-2038579

Al Shabaab Governance – peer-reviewed paper published

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How does the insurgent Somali Islamist movement Al Shabaab govern the populations it controls, and what are the implications for Somalia and the international intervention there? This is the subject of my article published by the Canadian Journal of African Studies on 18 July 2025.

Here is the link to the final manuscript as accepted by the Journal, and following is the abstract of the paper.

Presentations and echoes

I will discuss this paper as part of the presentation on my current research at Leiden University on 24 September, in a closed session to which LU staff and students are invited.

I’m organising a seminar on this topic at the Center for International Studies of Sciences Po (CERI) in Paris in the second half of October (precise date and location to follow). The seminar will be presented and moderated by my colleague at the CERI Hélène Thiollet.

An article based on my research will soon be published by the New Humanitarian, and a shorter, more divulgative article will appear in The Conversation (African edition). The links will be placed here upon publication.

I had the pleasure to discuss this paper with Guido Lafranchi, researcher at the Clingendael Institute, and look forward to other discussions with experts!

Note: the banner image is from a 2018 map depicting areas of influence. Al Shabaab = green. Not much has changed since then.

Publication de chapitre sur l’enquête en zone de conflits

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Ensemble avec Emmanuel Al Miah et Dércio Tsandzana, j’ai écrit le premier chapitre du livre ‘Enquêter en Terrain Sensible’ (Presses du Septentrion). Le livre examine les difficultés inhérentes aux études de terrain dans les zones liminaires – soit parce qu’il y a la guerre ou d’autres types de violence, soit à cause des politiques institutionnelles d’acteurs qui sont habitués à la discrétion, soit encore à cause du positionnement du chercheur face à son objet d’enquête.

Un grand merci aux directeurs de l’ouvrage pour l’initiative qu’ils ont pris, voici il y a deux ans, et leur patience pour mener ce projet à sa fin. Les autres contributions, y compris l’introduction à la première partie du livre par Roland Marchal, sont aussi très intéressantes.

Notre chapitre décrit comment on peut faire, malgré les difficultés, des recherches dans les zones de conflit, en prenant la Somalie, l’Irak et le Mozambique comme exemples.

La Somalie: État défaillant ou État aubaine?

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This is my 1.5 page contribution to “Un Monde en Crises“, an analytical digest of the world today written by researchers of the Centre de Recherches Internationales. It argues that the Somali state is not a failure for Somali elites, who distribute international funding to their clan constituencies. Since all clans are represented in the current make-up of the Federal State, this maintains some stability in the country.

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Interview in NRC over staatsopbouw in de Hoorn van Afrika

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Interview

‘De liberale democratie die het Westen altijd als panacee voorschrijft, werkt simpelweg vaak niet’

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2023/05/29/er-zijn-meerdere-vormen-van-bestuur-als-alternatief-van-een-centrale-overheid-a4165826

Robert Kluijver | Expert internationale betrekkingen

In de Hoorn van Afrika verkruimelen staatsstructuren. Het Westen moet steun geven aan plaatselijke zelfhulpinitiatieven van burgers, zegt Robert Kluijver.

De Hoorn van Afrika staat in brand en staatsapparaten verkruimelen. In Somalië ging de centrale staat al ten onder in 1991, in Ethiopië nemen sinds 2020 regio’s het op tegen de centrale autoriteit. En in Soedan raakten de machthebbers vorige maand onderling slaags. Maar de bevolking zit niet bij de pakken neer en werkt aan alternatieve vormen van bestuur. De vraag is hoe om te gaan met dit proces van eroderende staatsstructuren. Misschien is het misplaatst om een sterke centrale regering te willen vestigen en moet juist steun worden gegeven aan plaatselijke zelfhulpinitiatieven van burgers, zoals de verzetsgroepen in Soedan en de lokale vredesinitiatieven in Somalië. Dat betoogt Robert Kluijver, die westerse pogingen bestudeert om liberale democratieën te vestigen in landen die cultureel vaak enorm verschillen.

Wat is er over van de staat in Soedan?

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Le Somaliland, la démocratie africaine aux 30 ans d’isolement

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For the full article (in French) see The Conversation here. I also gave a 20-minute interview in French on the Belgian Radio programme ‘Au Bout du Jour’ by Eddy Caekelberghs on 28 Feb 2022 (link here)

Il y a trente ans, tandis que la Somalie sombrait dans la guerre civile, la partie nord-ouest du pays a fait sécession. Elle s’est déclarée indépendante sous le nom de Somaliland. Depuis, ce pays a construit un État, un ordre démocratique, sa propre monnaie et une économie. Il a surtout connu la paix, à la différence de la Somalie voisine.

Le Somaliland, grand comme la moitié de la France, est peuplé de trois à quatre millions de personnes. Il commande une position stratégique sur les rives sud du Golfe d’Aden, une des zones majeures du transit maritime mondial.

Depuis trente ans, ce pays cherche la reconnaissance diplomatique, en tant que bon voisin et en respectant les règles internationales. Pourtant, il n’est pas reconnu. Pourquoi ?

Le marché du bétail à Aynabo. Robert Kluijver, Fourni par l’auteur
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Contemporary Somali culture

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Over the past year I spent a lot of time researching contemporary Somali culture in the Horn of Africa (Somalia, Somaliland, Somali Regional State in Ethiopia, Addis, Nairobi, North-Eastern Provinces of Kenya) for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and a nice little consulting outfit focusing on culture called Aleph Strategies.

Unusually, SDC is planning a 12-year long smart investment into the development of Somali culture, and this report is the baseline study allowing to build a strategy. Donors rarely have the long-term perspective which allows for slow and steady build-up: the contrary of so-called ‘Quick Impact Projects’.

As part of their strategy, SDC agreed that we could prepare and disseminate a public version of the report. It covers the different types of cultural expression, the social and political context of cultural production in each region and it gives examples of current cultural developments and groups.

Here’s a link to the report

Two prints from the Coming Home series by Mustafa Saeed (Hargeisa), 2020: Monument (l) and Vintage Spirit (r). Artist’s website
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Somaliland elections – backgrounder

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The parliamentary and local council elections in Somaliland on May 31 went well; they were peaceful and they delivered a surprising result, because the opposition parties won.

The ruling party, Kulmiye, came second nationwide in the parliamentary polls, preceded with just one seat by Waddani. UCID, a party which had been doing quite poorly in recent elections, made a surprising comeback.

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Understanding the current Somali political crisis

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Analysis by Robert Kluijver, April 28 2021
The crisis that is rocking Somalia now is caused by the unwillingness of President Farmajo, whose term ended on Feb 8, 2021, to allow a transition of power. If he continues to cling to the presidency, we may witness a disintegration of national security forces into clan-based militias that defend certain areas of Mogadishu, resulting in low to medium levels of armed conflict and permanent instability. The fragile political progress made over the past decade may unravel and the Somali economy may enter a phase of stagnation or decline. Mogadishu residents fleeing their homes to escape the fighting (60,000 to 100,000 on Sunday April 25, according to the UN) and the Al Shabaab attacks in Mogadishu on April 28 are a foreboding of what may come if this crisis is not rapidly resolved.

In the night of Tuesday to Wednesday 28 April, Farmaajo announced he would seek a new mandate from Parliament to solve the current political crisis through elections, overturning his earlier insistence that the extension of his mandate by two years, voted by the Lower House on 14 April, provided sufficient legitimacy for his rule. In the same speech he lashed out at his political opponents, accusing them of engineering the current crisis for their personal benefit. Far from conciliation, he did not suggest he would step down to allow a level playing field during the electoral process, which is a key demand of his opponents.

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