2842. 🇸🇴 Somaliland Finally Receives International Recognition (By Israel) But Still No Stamps.

 

🇸🇴 Somaliland Recognised By Israel.

  The former British protectorate of British Somaliland which declared itself to be the independent state of Somaliland on 18 May 1991 and since then, apart from a functioning postal service, has been a fully operative de facto sovereign state, has finally received its first recognition as an independent state by the government of Israel (also of course a former British protectorate, then known as Palestine).

  Somaliland had previously been a sovereign state from 26 June 1960, when it received its independence from the United Kingdom, until 1 July 1960 when it was absorbed into the Republic of Somalia, after Italian Somaliland had received its independence from Italy. A rebellion against the communist dictator of Somalia, Siad Barre, began in Somaliland in May 1988 and Barre was overthrown in January 1991 and the result was violent chaos right across Somalia and Somaliland’s secession from Somalia on 18 May 1991 as mentioned above. Since then, Somaliland has remained separate and relatively peaceful and sought international recognition but without success until 26 December 2025 when the Israeli government announced its formal recognition of Somaliland as a fully independent sovereign state. Given Somaliland’s strategic location at the mouth of the Red Sea, Israel doubtless sees influence with the breakaway state as being highly advantageous to it but this represents an important step in Somaliland becoming Africa’s 55th country and, who knows, developing a postal service which actually issues postage stamps. Will any African states now follow? Look out for recognition by Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.

Independent Somaliland’s only 3 stamps (issued 26 June 1960) -

post scriptum - the flag emoji shows the flag of Somalia, no emoji of Somaliland’s flag is available. This is also true of Turkish Cyprus, Alderney (but one exists for Sark), British Antarctic Territory, Tristan Da Cunha and Ascension.

🇮🇴 Chagosians form a government in exile.

With the British Indian Ocean Territory (the Chagos Islands) still not yet under Mauritian sovereignty (though if the Starmer government has its way, it soon will be despite the objections of those of Chagossian descent) the Chagossians formed a ‘government-in-exile’ on 17 December 2025 with Midley Mandarin as interim First Minister. Philatelically, it will be interesting to see where this one goes - will, for instance, the Chagossian government-in-exile issue propaganda stamps to highlight its cause as the Tibetan government-in-exile did after the Dalai Lama was exiled in India (two sets of four - the first issued in 1972 and the second in 1974)? They were very collectable and historically interesting even though their significance as postage stamps was highly questionable. The story of the Chagos Islands may not yet have reached the final page, even in the stamp album.

Midley Mandarin, interim Chief Minister of Chagos government-in-exile

Commonwealth countries which are not known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps during 2025 -

Anguilla

Antigua and Barbuda 

Belize 

British Indian Ocean Territory 

British Virgin Islands

Cameroon

Cayman Islands

Cook Islands including Rarotonga 

Cook Islands Aitutaki 

Cook Islands Penrhyn

Dominica

Gabon

Ghana 

Grenada Carriacou and Petite Martinique 

Kingdom of eSwatini 

Lesotho 

Montserrat 

Nauru

Nevis

Nigeria

Niue

Papua New Guinea 

Rwanda

St Kitts or St Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

St Vincent and The Grenadines

Solomon Islands

Tokelau 

Tonga

Tonga Niuafo’ou

Turks and Caicos Islands 

Tuvalu

Uganda

United Republic of Tanzania 

Vanuatu 

Zambia

Therefore at the end of the year 36 out of 89 (40.5%) Commonwealth philatelic entities are not known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps during 2025. This compares with the figure for 2024 at the end of that year of 28 out of 89 or 31.5%.

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