Editing Somaliland (section)

=== Restoration of sovereignty (end of the unity with Somalia) ===
{{Main|Somaliland Peace Process|Somaliland Declaration of Independence}}

[[File:Hargeisa War Memorial 2012.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Hargeisa War Memorial|MiG monument in Hargeisa]] commemorating Somaliland's breakaway from the rest of Somalia in 1991]]
Although the SNM at its inception had a unionist constitution, it eventually began to pursue independence, looking to secede from the rest of Somalia.<ref name="Sqfirhbmsscf">{{cite web|url=http://wardheernews.com/Articles_2010/June/Buh/29_Somaliland_recognition_&_the_HBM-SSC_Factor.html|title=Somaliland's Quest for International Recognition and the HBM-SSC Factor|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120528122058/http://wardheernews.com/Articles_2010/June/Buh/29_Somaliland_recognition_%26_the_HBM-SSC_Factor.html|archive-date=28 May 2012}}</ref> Under the leadership of [[Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur]], the local administration declared the northwestern Somali territories independent at a conference held in [[Burao]] between 27 April 1991 and 15 May 1991.<ref name="boAu1">{{cite web|url=http://www.somalilandlaw.com/Somaliland_Constitution/body_somaliland_constitution.htm#Chapter1|title=Somaliland Constitution|access-date=28 March 2016}}</ref> Tuur then became the newly established Somaliland polity's first President, but subsequently renounced the separatist platform in 1994 and began instead to publicly seek and advocate reconciliation with the rest of Somalia under a power-sharing [[Federalism|federal]] system of governance.<ref name="Sqfirhbmsscf" /> A brief armed conflict had begun in January 1992 against rebels against Tuur in the period that he was in power, lasting until August 1992, when it was settled by a conference at the town of Sheikh.<ref name="prunierwritenet">{{Cite web|title=Somalia: Civil War, Intervention and Withdrawal 1990 – 1995|url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a6c98.html|access-date=13 April 2023}}</ref>

[[Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal]] was appointed as Tuur's successor in 1993 by the Grand Conference of National Reconciliation in [[Borama]], which met for four months, leading to a gradual improvement in security, as well as a consolidation of the new territory.<ref name="wRrOl">Lewis, ''A Modern History'', pp. 282–286</ref> Another armed conflict between the Somaliland government, now under Egal, and rebels began, as militias of the Eidagalley clan occupied Hargeisa airport for some time. Conflict re-erupted when troops of the government attacked the airport to drive out the Eidagalley militias in October 1994, sparking a new war that would spread out of Hargeisa and last until around April 1995, with a rebel defeat. Around the same time, Djiboutian-backed forces of the Issa-dominated United Somali Front attempted and failed to carve out Issa-inhabited areas of Somaliland.<ref name="prunierwritenet"/> Egal was reappointed in 1997, and remained in power until his death on 3 May 2002. The vice-president, [[Dahir Riyale Kahin]], who was during the 1980s the highest-ranking [[National Security Service (Somalia)|National Security Service]] (NSS) officer in [[Berbera]] in Siad Barre's government, was sworn in as president shortly afterward.<ref name="Albla">Human Rights Watch (Organization), Chris Albin-Lackey, ''Hostages to peace: threats to human rights and democracy in Somaliland'', (Human Rights Watch: 2009), p.13.</ref> In 2003, Kahin became the first elected president of Somaliland.<ref name="3qgvQ">{{cite web|url=https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2012/somaliland|title=FREEDOM IN THE WORLD – Somaliland Report|date=18 May 2012|access-date=19 February 2018|archive-date=10 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110061308/https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2012/somaliland}}</ref>

The [[War in Somalia (2006–present)|war in southern Somalia]] between [[Al-Shabaab (militant group)|Islamist insurgents]] on the one hand, and the [[Federal Government of Somalia]] and its [[African Union]] allies on the other, has for the most part not directly affected Somaliland, which, like neighbouring [[Puntland]], has remained relatively stable.<ref name="HUSwk">{{cite web|url=http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Somalia_27/Somalia_Somaliland_appeals_for_cooperation_with_Puntland_a_second_time.shtml|title=Somalia: Somaliland appeals for 'cooperation with Puntland' a second time|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140131003947/http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Somalia_27/Somalia_Somaliland_appeals_for_cooperation_with_Puntland_a_second_time.shtml|archive-date=31 January 2014}}</ref><ref name="TAE8S">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b082x79f|title=BBC Radio 4 – Start the Week, Rewriting the Past: from Empire to ivory|website=BBC}}</ref>