At 88, former Somaliland foreign minister Edna Adan Ismail bubbles with enthusiasm about Israel’s landmark recognition of the state in December.

“I’m so glad that we can openly say the word, Israel, because there was a time when we would not be sure about how people would respond to that,” she told The Times of Israel on a recent video call.

Last month, Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi said he had accepted an invitation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Israel and sign a trade agreement in the near future, but no date has been set. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar visited the deeply traditional Muslim country in early January.

The country’s first trained female nurse-midwife, who served as Somaliland’s top diplomat between 2003 and 2006, Edna has earned the moniker “first lady” of Somaliland because of her lifelong dedication to the country.

She prefers that people refer to her as “simply Edna” because, she explained, in Somaliland people have their given name, then their father’s name, followed by their grandfather’s name.

“We’re not fundamentalists,” she said. “Yes, we’re Muslim. We respect our religion, but then we also respect other people’s religions as well.”

Edna said she was already working on the Israeli-Somaliland relationship when she was foreign minister over two decades ago.

“This is just a natural collaboration with good people who are doing good work with us and who have been good to us,” Edna said. “And then I think the most important reason, of course, is strategic, because we depend on each other for our mutual survival.”

Israel’s decision to recognize Somaliland has drawn an angry response from Somalia and has been criticized by China, Turkey, Egypt, and the African Union.

Somaliland also cooperates with the UAE and Taiwan, though only Israel has formally recognized the country.

The government in Mogadishu still considers Somaliland an integral part of Somalia even though the territory has run its own affairs since 1991, with its own passport, currency, army and police forces.

During his visit, Sa’ar said, “The recognition and establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries are not directed against anyone.”

The history of Somaliland and Somalia

On the horn of Africa and the coast of the Red Sea, Somaliland is often described as a breakaway region of Somalia, but that notion is wrong, Edna said.

Once a protectorate of Britain, Somaliland gained its independence on June 26, 1960, five days before Somalia, a former territory of Italy, gained its own.

Israel was among the 35 nations to recognize Somaliland’s sovereignty at the time.

Somaliland united with Somalia for a period of time, but the union was fraught.

Between 1960 and 1991, Somalia’s president and military dictator, Siad Barre, killed more than 200,000 people, mostly of the Isaaq clan — of which Edna is a........

© The Times of Israel