Somaliland

Somaliland (Somali: Soomaaliland, Arabic: أرض الصومال‎ Arḍ aṣ-Ṣūmāl) is an unrecognised self-declared sovereign state that is the successor state to the British Somaliland protectorate. Somaliland is bordered by Ethiopia in the south and west, Djibouti in the northwest, the Gulf of Aden in the north, and the autonomous Puntland region of Somalia to the east. In 1988, the Siad Barre regime committed massacres against the people of Somaliland, which were among the events that led to the Somali Civil War. The war left the economic and military infrastructure severely damaged. After the collapse of the central government in 1991, the local government, led by the Somali National Movement (SNM), declared independence from the rest of Somalia on May 18 of the same year.