The African Union’s Peace and Security Council issued an unusually unified condemnation in early February 2026, demanding that Israel reverse its recognition of Somaliland — the breakaway region that declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but has never received international recognition. Diplomatic sources described the council’s fifteen member states as speaking with one voice, a notable degree of alignment reflecting deep concern across the continent about external powers redrawing political realities in fragile regions.

The AU called on international partners to reaffirm Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial unity. Addis Ababa consultations among foreign ministers framed the Israeli move not just as a bilateral matter but as a precedent — one that, if tolerated, could be used to justify similar interventions across a continent full of contested borders, separatist movements, and unresolved post-colonial territorial disputes.

Israel’s move into Somaliland is not coincidental. The region sits at the entrance to the Red Sea, a strategic chokepoint that has been at the center of ongoing conflict involving Houthi forces in Yemen and competing great power interests. Israel has been expanding its diplomatic and security footprint across Africa — securing military cooperation agreements, surveillance technology partnerships, and intelligence-sharing arrangements with multiple governments, often justified as counterterrorism cooperation. Critics across the continent have drawn a straight line from these arrangements to the surveillance and control architectures developed and tested through decades of occupation of Palestinian territory.

Somalia’s government formally objected to Israeli presence in Somaliland and warned of broader regional consequences. Mogadishu’s position reflects not just a territorial claim but a recognition that Israel’s strategic expansion in the Horn of Africa reshapes alignments in ways that will outlast any single administration.

The AU meeting also called for a Sudan ceasefire and rejected what it described as foreign intervention frameworks being imposed on African conflicts without adequate continental input — a broader critique of how powerful external actors manage African crises on terms set elsewhere.

Africa’s unified rejection of the Somaliland recognition is a signal. Whether the international community reads it as one is another question.