Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud wrote a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump last week offering the United States exclusive control of some of the nation’s airbases and ports, which would greatly improve America’s military presence in the region.
The implicit bargain was that the U.S. would use these bases to protect Somalia against incursions by Islamist militants.
“These strategically positioned assets provide an opportunity to bolster American engagement in the region, ensuring uninterrupted military and logistical access while preventing external competitors from establishing a presence in this critical corridor,” Mohamud wrote to Trump, as related by Reuters, which reviewed a copy of the March 16 letter on Friday.
Reuters mentioned four specific sites covered by the letter: airbases in Baledogle and Berbera and ports in Berbera and Bosaso.
Baledogle’s airfield, located about 55 miles from Mogadishu, is already heavily utilized by the U.S. military. The Port of Bosaso is controlled by the autonomous state of Puntland and operated by a company from the United Arab Emirates, which has been working to modernize the port’s commercial facilities.
By far the most provocative aspect of the Somali president’s letter was his offer to give the United States operational control over the port and airfield in Berbera, which is located in the breakaway province of Somaliland. The region became part of Somalia in 1960 and declared independence in 1991 after overthrowing a brutal military dictator. It has been self-governing since then, with its own president, administration, and constitution. No other country recognizes Somaliland’s independence, however.
The breakaway region’s inhabitants consider their government to be more honest and transparent than Somalia’s. Somalilanders have won international applause for holding clean elections where opposition parties can actually win sometimes, though no other nation or major international organization formally recognizes the outcome of those elections.
Somaliland Foreign Minister Abdirahman Dahir Aden was not amused when Reuters told him the president of Somalia offered to give control of Berbera’s port and airfield to the United States.
“The USA gave up this corrupted regime called Somalia. The USA is now ready to deal with Somaliland, who has shown the world to be a peaceful, stable, and democratic nation,” he asserted.
“The USA is not stupid. They know who they need to deal with when it comes to Berbera port,” he added confidently.
“It is astonishing to hear statements from the President of Somalia, who cannot even manage Mogadishu, yet meddles in Berbera,” Somaliland President Abdirahman Irro told reporters on Saturday.
“I tell the international community, the President of the United States, and the world at large: Somaliland governs its own land, sea, and airspace,” he declared.
The Financial Times (FT) reported on March 14 that American diplomats have made initial contacts with Irro’s administration to take control of Berbera’s port in exchange for U.S. recognition of Somaliland’s independence. According to FT’s sources, these “very tentative, initial contacts” represented the “beginnings of a conversation” about the U.S. acquiring territory in Somaliland, which might be used to handle refugees from Gaza under President Trump’s vision of relocating the Palestinians and renovating Gaza to become “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Irro denied negotiating with the U.S. to relocate the Palestinians in February, and Somali President Mohamud has insisted the Palestinians must remain in Gaza.
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