Published On 4/6/2026
Israeli official radio said that Tel Aviv is rehabilitating and training security forces in the separatist region of Somaliland, and the British newspaper The Telegraph revealed, on Thursday, the return of 50 members of the special forces to Somaliland after receiving military training and qualification programs in Israel.
The radio explained that security relations with the Somali region, located in the Horn of Africa, have continued to strengthen since Israel recognized its independence at the end of 2025, in a move that sparked widespread Arab and international condemnation.
She added that the President of Somaliland, Abdul Rahman Abdullahi, was scheduled to visit Israel last March, but the visit was postponed to an unspecified date due to the Iran war.
In December 2025, Tel Aviv recognized the internationally unrecognized breakaway region of Somaliland, which Mogadishu rejected and sparked regional and international criticism.
The Telegraph newspaper also reported that Israel has strengthened its security cooperation with the separatist Somali region, adding that security cooperation represents one of the main axes in the growing relations between the two sides, in light of the strategic importance enjoyed by the “Somaliland” region, overlooking the Red Sea and close to the Yemeni coast.
The newspaper said that the region’s location gives it special geopolitical and security importance for Israel.
The newspaper added that an official in the region did not deny this cooperation, and quoted the official – whose identity the newspaper did not reveal – that relations with Israel include multiple fields, and that security force training programs come within the framework of existing cooperation between the two parties.
He said that an important aspect of bilateral relations (which he did not clarify) was taking place out of the limelight, and that there were common security interests and similar challenges facing both sides.
Before Israel recognized it, the region had not received any international recognition since it announced its separation from Somalia in 1991, but it continued to act as if it were an independent administrative, political and security entity.
The Israeli recognition raised warnings of the possibility that Tel Aviv would seek to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip – against which a war of genocide was waged, and where about 2.4 million Palestinians live – to the Somaliland region, in light of regional countries, including Egypt and Jordan, confirming their rejection of any displacement operations there.
Source: Israeli press + telegraph + Anatolia Agency
