No talks to settle Gazans in Somaliland

Somaliland has not received any proposal from the US or Israel to resettle Palestinians from Gaza, the foreign minister of Somalia’s breakaway region said on Friday.

Associated Press (AP) quoted US and Israeli officials as saying the US and Israel had contacted officials from Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland to discuss using their territory for resettling Palestinians from the devastated Gaza Strip.

Sudanese officials said they rejected the proposal by the US, and officials from Somalia and Somaliland said they were unaware of any contacts, AP reported.

“I haven't received such a proposal, and there are no talks with anyone regarding Palestinians,” said Abdirahman Dahir Adan, Somaliland’s foreign minister.

Somaliland has mostly been at peace since declaring independence from Somalia in 1991, but is not recognised by any country. The government has expressed hope that US President Donald Trump will be favourable to its cause.

The White House and the US state department did not immediately respond to a requests for comment.

The foreign ministry of Sudan, a country dealing with a devastating civil war, also did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

A senior Sudanese government said Sudan had not received such a proposal and that it would be unacceptable.

The information minister for Somalia, which has been battling an Islamist insurgency for over 17 years, did not answer telephone calls by Reuters seeking comment.

Arab leaders adopted a $53bn Egyptian reconstruction plan for Gaza that would avoid displacing Palestinians from the enclave, in contrast to Trump's vision of a “Middle East Riviera”.

Trump has proposed a US takeover of the Gaza Strip to reconstruct the enclave, where fighting has been under way since October 2023, after earlier suggesting that Palestinians should be permanently displaced.

Trump’s plan reinforced long-standing Palestinian fears of being permanently driven from their homes, and was widely rejected internationally.

Asked about the AP report, Michele Zaccheo, UN spokesperson in Geneva, said: “Any plan that could or would lead to the forced displacement of people or any type of ethnic cleansing is something that we would obviously be against, as it is against international law.”

Taher Al-Nono, political adviser to the leadership of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, said the proposal to resettle Palestinians from Gaza in Africa was “silly” and had been rejected by the Palestinians and Arab leaders.

“The Palestinians will not leave their land,” he said. 

Reuters