Israel secretly deployed a small contingent of forces to Somaliland earlier this year following its recognition of the breakaway territory, a senior Somali government official revealed to Middle East Eye (MEE) on Monday.
"According to our intelligence reports, the Israeli military selected Israeli soldiers of African heritage, especially Ethiopians, so as not to draw attention to themselves and to blend in more easily with the local community," the senior Somali official stated.
The Somali official said that Israel had deployed a group of 50 soldiers to Somaliland shortly after the recognition and the resumption of the war on Iran in late February.
On June 17, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz admitted to years of clandestine, "under the radar" security operations with Somaliland.
During a high-level meeting in Tel Aviv with Somaliland’s visiting president, Israeli officials confirmed that Israel is now directly involved in training the breakaway region's military and police.
"For many years, we cooperated under the radar in a series of operations that will remain classified. Now we are determined to bring our security cooperation to new heights, for the benefit of both peoples and for the benefit of stability in the region," Katz said.
In early June, CNN reported that the breakaway republic of Somaliland had provided Israel with an additional military position on the Horn of Africa, allowing Israeli aircraft to "potentially stop" long-range flights to Iran.
Israel's Channel 12 reported on 2 May that a senior official in Somaliland said the territory is ready to cooperate with Israel to confront what it described as the "threat" from the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) to the highly strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.
The official said that any "disruption of maritime security" would push Somaliland to expand its relations with Israel, including to the level of a security alliance.
The official also noted that Somaliland currently cooperates with partners such as the US and the UAE, which maintain a presence in the territory’s Berbera Port, and said a similar partnership would be possible with Israel.
The UAE operates the Berbera Port, using it as a logistics hub to transfer arms and mercenaries to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is responsible for committing alleged genocide against non-Arab tribes in Sudan.
Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia in 1991, and in December 2025, Israel became the first and only UN member state to recognize it as an independent and sovereign state. Israel later appointed Michael Lotem as its first ambassador to Hargeisa in April, drawing worldwide condemnation.