Somalia: US tacitly encourages Somaliland secession
Channel: Ann Garrison
Date: 2023-02-26

The US has been tacitly encouraging Somaliland secession because it wants a naval base in Somaliland's Berbera port. It already has a naval base, Camp Lemmonier, in nearby Djibouti that it appears to have outgrown. An aircraft carrier alone is a floating city of more than 5000 US servicepersons, so it needs a wide berth.

The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act includes a plan for direct military collaboration between the US and the breakaway state government, bypassing the federal government and angering Somali nationalists.

Somali American software engineer and writer Jamal Abdulahi spoke to Pacifica Radio. His essay, “United States’s Pursuit of Imperial Military Base in Northern Somalia Fuels Brutal War,” appears in Black Agenda Report.