UK MPs to make a brief debate on Somaliland recognition 

It has urged Somalilanders in the UK to get in touch with their respective MPs and thanked the former UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson for his advocacy.

News Keydmedia Online
17 January 2022

LONDON, THE UK - The lawmakers of the British parliament are expected to hold a brief debate on a motion about Somaliland's bid for independence on Tuesday, January 18.
No decision will be made on the issue, which was brought to the house by Gavin Williamson who is a conservative MP from South Staffordshire.

Meanwhile, Somaliland’s ministry of foreign affairs said it is aware of the adjournment debate on the 18th of January at the UK Parliament regarding the recognition.

It has urged Somalilanders in the UK to get in touch with their respective MPs and thanked the former UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson for his advocacy.

Williamson is known for his strong support and advocates for the secession of the breakaway region in northern Somalia, which claimed to have separated from the entire Horn of Africa nation.

The legislator has in the past served as British Secretary of Defense from 2017 to 2019 during Theresa May's Cabinet and Secretary of State for Education under PM Boris Johnson between 2017 and 2019.

He has close ties to senior Somaliland officials who spend large sums of money on raising the issue of the recognition they have been pursuing for 30 years in major international arenas.

This is not the first time the subject has been raised in the British Parliament. In December 2019, 11 Labor MPs filed a motion for the UK parliament to recognize Somaliland.

Somaliland is "a British protectorate". One of the lawmakers later withdrew from the motion over undisclosed reasons. It’s obvious that the matter will affect relations between Somalia and the UK which has no official embassy in Mogadishu with a permanent ambassador. 

Cardiff, Sheffield, and Birmingham City Councils have previously declared they recognized Somaliland as an "independence state", as the UK government cautiously mulls on the tabled recognition issue.

The foreign aid, mostly from the west to Somaliland is channeled through the Mogadishu-based government, in the same way as other regional administrations in the Horn of the country. 

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