How Las Anod Changed Somaliland’s Case for Recognition

Somaliland has spent three decades asking the world to trust a specific story about itself: a peaceful, democratic state exercising real authority over the territory it claims, with institutions worthy of recognition. The 2023 war in Las Anod tested all four of those claims — peace, democratic legitimacy, authority over the territory, institutional credibility — within the space of a few months. The war broke the first three claims in the open. What happened next to one critic exposed the…