UN General Assembly
1977

169. My delegation wishes to make it clear that Britain had no authority whatsoever to cede or in any way to traffic in the land of the Somali people. The treaties it concluded with the Somali people between 1884 and 1887 provided the only possible basis for whatever British authority may have exited with regard to those parts of Somali territory under British protection. The protectorate treaties were international agreements. If one seeks to separate the 1897 treaty from the prior protectorate treaties of 1884 to 1889, then the 1897 treaty falls, for lack of all authority.