British handover of western Somaliland to Ethiopia split Somali lands against their will

Evidence

When the four-powers commission failed to agree on the fate of the Somali territories, a new and difficult chapter of Somali history began. The British proposal to keep all the territories united under its aegis was thwarted by France and the USSR. Ultimately, the case was sent back to the UN, which supported Italy’s return to Southern Somalia. Shortly thereafter, the British handed over western Somaliland to Ethiopia while retaining the protectorate. Such colonial gerrymandering of Somali territory took place against the vocal and determined resistance of Somalis. Retrospectively, one wonders, if the Somali people and their lands had not been treated as pawns in this colonial and Cold War exercise and if the UN and the four-powers commission had agreed to the Bevin plan, whether the horrific catastrophes that befell the Somali people in the next fifty years would have happened. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 466

Categorization

• QUESTION: The counterfactual about the Bevin plan’s adoption is worth checking against later histories of the Ogaden and NFD conflicts.