With respect to Egal’s foreign policy towards Djibouti, there are a number of important issues that need to be explained carefully. First, as we argued previously in another paper examining Somaliland’s relations with its neighboring countries, friendly cooperation with Djibouti was seen as crucial in achieving the broader foreign policy of maintaining peaceful and cordial relations with neighboring countries. With that in mind, President Egal paid one of his first diplomatic visits to Djibouti.
Prior to that, there had been military confrontations between SNM fighters that were based on the border with Djibouti and Djiboutian military forces. During Egal’s visit to Djibouti, President Abtidon requested that President Egal do what he could to address the SNM fighters’ role in the military confrontation.
President Egal immediately took action on the issue by removing the troops, who had yet to be demobilized, from the border in order to avoid further military clashes. From 1994 to 1999, relations between Somaliland and Djibouti were therefore very stable, even though there was no formal exchange of diplomatic representatives between the two states.
This low-key diplomatic relationship deteriorated in early 2000 when Djibouti hosted the Somali Peace Conference in Arta, which Somaliland boycotted. The Arta Conference had originally been proposed by Egal during a visit with his new counterpart, President Ismail Omar Guelleh, in Djibouti, who envisaged the event as the means to secure a detailed peace plan for Somalia, with Djibouti—the only Somali majority populated country that enjoyed international recognition—using its influence to bring the warring parties to an agreement.
Egal believed Djibouti could play a significant role in reconciling the warring factions in Somalia by using its positions at the UN, Organization of African Unity (OAU), and Arab League to secure diplomatic, economic, and political support of the international community.
Unfortunately, however, Guelleh betrayed Egal by inviting Somaliland to the conference as one of the warring groups of Somalia in direct contravention of their private agreement that Somaliland would not participate at the conference under such an arrangement. [[10]] After this incident, Egal’s relations with Djibouti became very tense and challenging.
With respect to his foreign policy towards Somalia as a whole, Egal initially tried to collaborate with Somalia on a fraternal basis, believing that mutual collaboration could advance the interests of both. He invited influential southern politician Abdulqasim Salad to Hargeisa, meeting him prior to Qassim’s appointment to the presidency of Somalia at the Arta Conference in Djibouti.
At the time, he suggested that if Qassim won his bid for the presidency, that Somalia and Somaliland would recognize each other and agree to settle outstanding issues between the two (such as the division of foreign assets of the Somali Republic) where ownership of assets in each country owned by the citizens of the other would be settled on an amicable and fraternal basis. Egal also pledged to support the government of Somalia in its efforts to defeat the warlords that were fomenting anarchy and violence, as well as to mediate political disputes between various clans in Somalia.
Unfortunately, these efforts to establish cordial and collaborative relations were met with hostility and double-dealing by Qassim once in office. In effect, President Qassim’s stance towards Somaliland became more aggressive and belligerent, most significantly when he declared Somaliland a “rogue” province of Somalia under his authority, rather than as an independent state. The government of Djibouti supported Qassim including his claims against Somaliland. Negative and hostile relations between Somaliland and its two neighbors were set in motion. In short, Egal extended an olive branch of friendship and mutual cooperation to both Djibouti and Somalia, only to be betrayed by political calculations.
Coming to President Egal’s foreign policy towards Arab states, Egal was concerned from the beginning that Arab states might present a serious obstacle to Somaliland’s bid for recognition, and sought to counter this by extending the hand of friendship and mutual collaboration early on. However, Egal’s enthusiastic pursuit of support from Arab states would be scrapped when he came to learn of the efforts that Boutros-Ghali (UN’s Secretary-General) had taken to block recognition of Somaliland’s independence. Jhazbhay (2007) describes Boutros Ghali’s aggressive policy against Somaliland in the following manner:
“Former UN Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali tried everything in his power to prevent and reverse Somaliland’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). Boutros-Ghali went to the extent of making a bid via the UN to have Egyptian troops deployed in Berbera as part of a ‘peacekeeping’ presence that would have given Egypt a major strategic military foothold in the Horn of Africa. [[11]]”.
It is worth mentioning that after Boutros-Ghali left the United Nations, Egal attempted again to repair diplomatic relations with Egypt. However, Egal’s fraternal overtures were met with resistance, as a result of Egypt’s decision to pursue an active campaign in support of a united Somalia.
This strong stance on Somali unity was based on a calculation that a powerful Somalia would serve as a regional counterweight to Ethiopia, which could force Ethiopia to abandon its plans to build hydroelectric dams on the Nile, an issue of vital importance to Egypt’s survival. Egypt persuaded the Arab League to let it determine the body’s collective policy towards Somaliland/Somalia, and this led to the ban on Somaliland livestock by Saudi Arabia in 1997. The aim was to starve Somaliland into capitulating to the demands of Egypt on Somali unity.
However, Egypt and its allies had not reckoned upon the determination and resolve of the people of Somaliland and their political leaders in remaining faithful to their commitment to national independence, and, in the end, Somaliland was able to weather the storm until the livestock ban was lifted in 2005.
With regards to Egal’s foreign policy towards Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Mohamed Saeed Gees [[12]], Egal’s former minister of finance and foreign affairs, has argued that Egal had extended the hand of friendship to most Gulf countries, notably Egypt and Saudi Arabia, only to be met with hostility and antagonism.
Gees has further mentioned that Egal met with the leadership of both states to appeal to them based on a common history and religious affinity, which with Saudi Arabia extended back to the early years of Islam when the first known mosque on the African continent was built in Zeila, and with Egypt the relationship dated back to Ottoman times.
Egal sought the support of both states for Somaliland’s bid for recognition and pledged that Somaliland would be a reliable partner in all efforts to resolve the region’s problems, including the Nile water dispute and the growth of terrorist networks, while also working to enhance the relationship between Africa and the Arab League.
When it comes to the wider continent of Africa, President Egal did not manage to establish significant relations with states in the African Union (AU) who could add value or influence to Somaliland’s efforts at garnering support for recognition.
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