Somalia’s new e-Visa system is escalating tensions with Somaliland, raising sovereignty concerns, aviation-safety risks, and fears of a digital blockade in the Horn of Africa.
By M. Amin, Special Report
Hargeisa, Somaliland — In late 2024, the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) quietly rolled out a new electronic visa – or e-Visa – system across the territories it claims as the “Somali Republic.” At first glance, it looked like a routine modernization step. But in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, the move triggered alarms that echo far beyond the digital screen.
To Somalilanders, the e-Visa decree isn’t about technology. It’s about sovereignty, safety, and survival.
For over three decades, Somaliland has run its own government, airports, and borders – without a cent from Mogadishu. The new e-Visa order demands that all passengers, including those flying to Hargeisa or Berbera, obtain clearance from Mogadishu first.
To Somaliland officials, this is more than a bureaucratic inconvenience. It’s a digital blockade.
“This is not about immigration control—it’s about control, period,” says one Somaliland civil aviation source. “They are trying to erase our existence through a server login.”
A Sudden Rift in the Skies
For years, air-traffic management over Somalia and Somaliland was handled under a neutral framework coordinated by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). That fragile cooperation began to fray in early 2025 when Mogadishu declared full authority over the flight region (FIR), sidelining Somaliland’s air-traffic controllers.
Soon after, a series of aviation incidents exposed the dangers of this unilateral move.
Ethiopian Airlines and Qatar Airways Near-Collision:
In mid-2025, two commercial jets were reportedly routed along converging paths. Somaliland’s ATC issued urgent warnings that were later confirmed by radar alerts—saving hundreds of passengers.
Medical Evacuation Denied: Weeks later, a humanitarian air ambulance was refused flight clearance by Mogadishu’s aviation office, delaying life-saving transport.
ICAO Staff Transfers: Somaliland-born aviation experts were reassigned from neutral ICAO operations to Mogadishu’s authority—fueling concerns that safety was being politicized.
According to ICAO Annex 12, local authorities responsible for search-and-rescue (SAR) operations are recognized de facto when they ensure safety. Somaliland has fulfilled this duty since the early 1990s. Aviation experts warn that imposing overlapping jurisdictions violates international standards.
“If pilots receive two conflicting flight instructions—one from Hargeisa, one from Mogadishu—you have a recipe for disaster,” says a retired ICAO consultant based in Nairobi.
Behind the Digital Curtain: Political Pressure
The e-Visa rollout is the latest front in a long political standoff that dates back to Somaliland’s declaration of independence in 1991. After years of civil war and the Isaaq genocide that leveled cities like Hargeisa and Burao, Somaliland declared its own governance.
Since then, it has built a functioning democracy and held six competitive elections.
Yet, despite its stability, international organizations continue to recognize Mogadishu as the sole government of the “Somali Republic,” a state that largely survives on external security and financial support.
Somaliland analysts argue that Mogadishu’s new e-Visa policy aims to provoke an internal backlash.
“If Hargeisa enforces the e-Visa, nationalist hard-liners will protest. If it refuses, Mogadishu will accuse it of being extremist or defiant,” explains one political observer. “It’s a trap designed to destabilize.”
A Pattern of Targeting
The e-Visa dispute comes amid a troubling record of alleged harassment against Somaliland professionals working in Mogadishu.
In early 2025, Abdinasir Muse, a Somaliland-born graduate and ICAO contractor, was killed under mysterious circumstances. Six of his colleagues—also from Somaliland—were detained and tortured before forensic tests cleared them.
Human-rights lawyers argue that these incidents fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), as Somalia is a State Party to the Rome Statute.
The Forgotten Legal Questions
Somaliland’s leaders often refer to the Friendship Treaty between Italy and the Somali Republic, signed in July 1960. The treaty applied only to the former Italian trusteeship territory—today’s southern Somalia.
Meanwhile, British Somaliland had gained full independence on 26 June 1960, and was registered at the UN under Article 102 as a sovereign state before voluntarily joining.
Further confusion stems from a 1991 resolution of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), drafted under the influence of then-Somali Ambassador Said Abdullahi Osman, which called to preserve “the Somali Republic territorial integrity.” That text shaped AU and UN interpretations, blocking Somaliland’s claims while protecting Mogadishu’s legacy.
“The victims of genocide were erased by the same legal fiction that protected their persecutors,” says a historian at the University of Hargeisa. “That’s the injustice Somaliland has lived with for 35 years.”
A Record of Peace Amid Instability
While much of Somalia has struggled with insurgency, Somaliland quietly built its own path:
- Stable government and peaceful elections since 1991.
- Civilian control over the military and police.
- Independent judiciary and financial systems.
- Cooperation with international partners on anti-piracy and counter-terrorism.
An AU-sponsored fact-finding mission in 2005 concluded that Somaliland’s case was “unique and self-sustaining.” The AU never acted on its own report.
Why This Matters
Somalia’s five-pointed star flag once symbolized a dream of spanning all Somali-inhabited regions—stretching from Djibouti to Kenya and Ethiopia.
For neighbors already wary of regional instability, renewed digital or territorial claims are seen as potentially explosive.
Analysts warn that undermining Somaliland’s autonomy could spill into a wider crisis in the Horn of Africa—one that threatens vital air corridors, Red Sea trade routes, and counter-terrorism coordination.
“Somaliland is a stabilizer. Weakening it for symbolic politics is like removing the keystone from a fragile arch,” a regional diplomat told this reporter.
What Somaliland Wants
The government in Hargeisa isn’t calling for sanctions or confrontation. Instead, it’s seeking:
- Suspension of the e-Visa system for territories under its control.
- Independent ICAO investigation into 2025 aviation-safety incidents.
- Clarification from the ICJ on the legal validity of the 1960 arrangements.
- Human-rights inquiries into killings and detentions of Somaliland citizens.
- Recognition of the Isaaq genocide as a matter of historical justice.
Somaliland’s message is clear: it wants dialogue grounded in facts, not digital decrees.
A Call for Consistency
Global institutions routinely speak of protecting sovereignty and human rights. But for Somalilanders, that principle feels one-sided.
How can international bodies call for accountability in conflicts elsewhere while overlooking a region that has maintained peace, governance, and cooperation without recognition?
Somaliland’s case poses an uncomfortable question:
If justice and sovereignty are universal, shouldn’t they apply equally to all—recognized or not?
The Bottom Line
Somalia’s imposter-imposed e-Visa is more than a software update—it’s a test of whether the international community will choose convenience over consistency.
For now, the skies above the Horn remain clouded by politics. And unless the world’s institutions move to untangle this digital blockade, a region that has spent decades rebuilding peace could find itself once again at the mercy of forces beyond its control.
