Hargeisa (Somalia Today) — Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi Irro openly acknowledged on Saturday that Somalia still controls several core state functions, even in areas where Somaliland claims full authority.
His remarks come as tensions rise over who controls Somali airspace and who has the right to decide who can fly into Somaliland. A new Somali federal e-visa system triggered the dispute.
Who is in charge?
At the heart of the standoff is a fundamental question: who is in charge?
Somaliland, which declared independence from Somalia in 1991 after the civil war, runs its own government, security forces, and institutions. It issues its own documents. It collects its own taxes. But it is not internationally recognized.
Somalia, for its part, says Somaliland is still one of its northern federal regions. That claim is written into Somalia’s constitution, according to official statements from both sides.
The latest clash began when Mogadishu introduced a mandatory electronic visa in early September 2025.
Under the new system, international airlines are instructed to deny boarding to any passenger without a Somali federal e-visa. Somaliland called the decision a “hostile campaign” and said it was an attempt to undermine its authority.
Hargeisa responded with a threat of its own: any airline that enforces the Somali e-visa rule for passengers traveling to Somaliland will be banned from Somaliland’s airspace and airports, including Hargeisa’s Egal International Airport. Somaliland has long issued its own visas on arrival and says Mogadishu has no right to interfere.
But in practice, airlines are complying with Somalia’s instructions. International carriers are complying with the federal e-visa order because Somalia controls the internationally recognized airspace and the civil aviation authority.
Airlines know that if they defy Mogadishu, they risk losing access to Somali airspace and federal approval. That compliance has triggered anger in Hargeisa — but Somaliland has limited leverage to punish carriers that side with Mogadishu.
‘A politically driven air war’
Somaliland officials argue this is not just an aviation dispute, but a political one.
“It is a politically driven air war,” Khadar Hussein Abdi, Somaliland’s minister for presidential affairs, told reporters. He accused Mogadishu of using the visa system to “cause hardship for the people of Somaliland.”
Officials in Hargeisa say Somalia is trying to assert direct control over Egal International Airport by forcing airlines to follow federal immigration rules.
Despite that sharp tone from his ministers, President Irro struck a more sober note.
He acknowledged that, in practice, Somalia still holds levers of power that Somaliland cannot fully replace. He specifically pointed to passports, civil aviation regulations, and the international telecommunications country code — all of which are controlled from Mogadishu.
That admission cuts to the core of Somaliland’s challenge: it operates like a state, but it does not control every function of a state.
Sovereignty versus escalation
Irro also tried to calm the situation publicly, even as his government warned airlines.
“We are not at war with Somalia, nor do we bear any hatred toward Somalis,” he said. “We exercised our right to self-determination on 18 May 1991.”
Mogadishu rejects that. The federal government says Somaliland is part of Somalia’s sovereign territory and is therefore subject to federal immigration and aviation law.
Irro, in turn, criticized Somalia’s internal political instability. He pointed to repeated constitutional disputes between Mogadishu and federal member states such as Puntland and the self-declared North East State.
“Somalia faces a formidable task,” he said. “Its federal member states have fragmented, and it has struggled to bring them back together.”
He compared Somalia’s efforts to “an old woman who could not carry the bundle of firewood she already had, but insisted on picking up more” — arguing that Mogadishu should resolve its own political fractures before trying to extend control over Somaliland.
A strategic test
The airspace confrontation is more than a paperwork fight. It is a real-time test of authority.
If airlines decide to follow Mogadishu’s order and require Somali e-visas for passengers headed to Hargeisa — as is happening so far — that strengthens Somalia’s claim to be the only recognized government.
If airlines were to ignore the order and keep flying to Somaliland under Hargeisa’s visa-on-arrival policy, that would support Somaliland’s argument that it functions as an independent state. For now, that scenario has not materialized.
The dispute also comes after months of tension between the two sides. In 2024, Somalia condemned a port access deal between Somaliland and Ethiopia, calling it a violation of Somalia’s sovereignty.
Somaliland has meanwhile pushed ahead with its own outreach. In June 2025, commanders from US Africa Command (AFRICOM) met President Irro in Hargeisa to discuss security cooperation.
For now, the e-visa rule puts international carriers in the middle. They must either comply with Somalia’s federal system — or risk being blocked by Hargeisa, which has limited enforcement power in the air, or cut off by Mogadishu, which controls internationally recognized airspace.
