Somaliland’s leading politician feared an Ethiopian invasion after independence

Evidence

Mohamed H. Ibrahim Egal, the leading protectorate politician, went to Addis Ababa, met with the Ethiopian emperor, and asked him to transfer the Somali regions to the protectorate before independence. Here is how the British authorities reported the event: “We fear that the failure of Mohamed Egal’s visit to Ethiopia, when he asked the Emperor to hand over the Haud to Somaliland, might lead to serious tension. It now looks as if the emperor, having read a lesson to the Somaliland delegation, is content to let things cool down. Mohamed Egal, on his return to Hargeisa, expressed the fear that the Ethiopians would invade Somaliland immediately after independence: he knows that we regard this as most unlikely, and the Somalis in Mogadishu, who appear to agree with us on this point, may have done something to calm his fears in the course of his recent visit there.” — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1322