Horn of Africa

Baroness Hoey Excerpts

Tuesday 29th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hoey (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, it gives me particular pleasure to speak in this debate so that I can congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Harman, on her maiden speech. It is nice to be close again, because we shared neighbouring constituencies for over 30 years. It is a delight to see her here, and I am very pleased that she will continue the amazing work she has done over the years on women’s rights.

I am genuinely grateful to the Minister for enabling us to have this kind of debate. I hope this will be a way to discuss other parts of Africa, as it would be lovely if we could get a proper debate on Zimbabwe, as he knows. I thank him.

The Minister and other Peers have given a comprehensive view of what is happening in the Horn of Africa. Over the past number of years, we have seen rising tensions, with the civil war in Sudan continuing to destabilise the country. There has been a drought for over three years, and food shortages. Worryingly, increasing numbers of various terrorist groups seem to be escalating their fundraising and recruitment.

I will speak about the one country in the region that gives us hope—Somaliland—and add some remarks to what the noble Lord, Lord Polak, said. It is important that we remind Peers and others listening to this debate of its history. In 1960, Somaliland emerged as an independent country from the British Empire after many years as British Somaliland. After that, it very quickly took steps to merge with what was then the Trust Territory of Somaliland—historically, Italian Somaliland—to form a union. Originally, there was huge optimism and hope of creating a country where all Somalis could come and live together peacefully. Sadly, that did not happen. Things got worse, with military dictatorships based in Mogadishu, discrimination against those in northern Somalia, attacks on civilians, mass killings and genocide. Somali jets bombed parts of northern Somalia and almost completely destroyed the city of Hargeisa.

Out of those decades of horror, Somaliland declared itself free of Somalia in a declaration of independence in 1991. For the last 33 years, that proud country has been asking for the world to recognise it. It is doing everything that we in the western world—western democracies—continue to flag up as showing what a democratic free country should do. As has been mentioned, it has regular, free and fair elections. In a couple of weeks, they will have their sixth presidential election, and I hope and am sure that, like those before, it will be peaceful.

It has an active civil society and has made huge strides in the advancement of women’s rights, even beginning to tackle what the noble Baroness, Lady Harman, mentioned: the scourge in that area of female genital mutilation. The current president is even considering banning FGM altogether. All sexual violence and rape acts go through the criminal justice system and are not, as elsewhere in the region, dealt with by community or customary laws, which have been outlawed. It has a strong and fair justice system and religious tolerance.

Indeed, in this whole region, independent Somaliland is the only beacon for democracy and the rule of law. We should be lauding what it has achieved. Yet despite that progress, its achievements and its loyalty to the United Kingdom—let us not forget how many Somalis died, sacrificed in the Second World War when they joined us in fighting fascism—we always find reasons to procrastinate and not officially recognise it.

I find it interesting that when I asked a Question a couple of weeks ago as to the possibility of the UK recognising Somaliland, one or two Peers urged so much caution that it seemed they did not even want to discuss Somaliland and almost implied that those of us who raised it were being reckless. It was also very telling that, in response to the Minister’s Answer, the noble Lord, Lord Howell of Guildford, was able to point out that the same Answer had been given to him to read out on the question of Somaliland being recognised when he was Minister, at least 10 years ago. That should give us food for thought, because obviously there has not been much change in the Foreign Office briefings over those years.

I am aware, as of course we all are, of the complexity of the region, as mentioned by other Peers, and that causes Foreign Office officials and Foreign Office Ministers to be very careful in their diplomatic efforts. Of course, it does not stop other countries looking after their own interests first, and we are now seeing China beginning to get very much involved in the Horn of Africa. China has said publicly that it is geographically of strategic importance to it, with abundant resources and enormous potential, and it now has a special envoy.

Any aid that we give should go directly to the people of Somaliland rather than via Somalia, where it is used as a political tool. Remember that during the Covid pandemic, vaccines earmarked for Somaliland were deliberately delayed in Mogadishu and released only hours before they expired. That exposed the politicisation of humanitarian aid. State-directed aid is also typically routed through Somalia. Understandably, the Somaliland Government have repeatedly declared that they neither can nor will accept development or budgetary support filtered through Somalia’s federal Government. They view that as an affront to a country that is running itself freely and successfully.

We should be rewarding good governance and using Somaliland as a beacon to show the rest of the region what can be achieved. Human Rights Watch produced a brief for this debate which highlights all the terrible atrocities, obscenities and human rights abuses that are taking place in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. As the noble Lord, Lord Polak, said earlier, “Somaliland” was not even mentioned in the Human Rights Watch brief. Clearly, it did not want to distinguish between Somalia and Somaliland, and it is very sad that the benefits of what has been happening there are not being put forward.

Our Government’s position seems to be, as was mentioned in the Lords recently, that it is up to Somaliland to negotiate with Somalia. The Minister said at Questions recently that it is absolutely an issue for Somalia to resolve. I think that is not feasible at all. Look at what is happening in Somalia. It will not suddenly, or even after a lot of negotiations, say, “Somaliland, you can be independent and we will recognise you”. A noble Lord said that we will set a precedent if we recognise it, but surely the Somaliland situation is unique because it was independent. It was recognised back in 1960. There probably would be a backlash from Somalia, but I believe that recognition by us would be followed very quickly by other western countries, including the United States, and that this would encourage the people in Somalia who really want to see changes to engage in dialogue.

Surely, we should be supporting and encouraging democracy around the world. To me, recognition is not just a moral imperative; it would give the United Kingdom a strategic advantage that aligns with our foreign policy goals. It would be the first step to promoting peace, stability and democracy in the entire Horn of Africa, benefiting all its people. I know that the noble Lord, Lord Collins, is looking at this very carefully, as was said in the short debate we had on Africa some time ago. I urge our new Government to look at this again, to be brave and not to wait for somebody else. Let us be the first to recognise what Somaliland has done and can do, and how that could play a real part in improving the terrible situation in that region.