Somaliland offers to rename Berbera Airport after Trump

MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi Irro has suggested renaming Berbera International Airport after U.S. President Donald Trump, as his government intensifies a decades-long campaign for independence from Somalia.

Irro raised the proposal during an interview with Council on Foreign Relations.

This comes after he recently floated the idea of inviting Trump to build a Trump Tower in the capital, Hargeisa.

“We are not giving anything for free,” Irro said. “We have to offer something. And we expect the other partner to have the same or equal opportunities.”

Why Berbera Matters

Berbera sits on the Gulf of Aden, close to the Bab el-Mandeb strait – one of the world’s busiest and most contested shipping corridors, linking the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. Its airport has one of the longest runways in Africa, built by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and stretching more than 4,000 metres.

The port was redeveloped with investment from the United Arab Emirates’ DP World and now anchors a free trade zone that Somaliland’s government presents as an economic gateway for the wider Horn of Africa. Irro has pointed to the port, an 850-kilometre coastline, fisheries, and untapped oil, gas and mineral reserves as leverage in talks with Washington.

A Broader Bid for Recognition

The airport proposal is one part of a wider package. Irro has said he would consider granting the United States expanded military access, including the possibility of a base at Berbera, and has not ruled out similar arrangements with Israel or other partners.

The offer comes against a backdrop of shifting regional alignments. Israel recognised Somaliland in December, the first United Nations member state to do so — a move Hargeisa has cited as evidence that international opinion on its status is moving. The U.S. Africa Command has visited Hargeisa and Berbera to assess the territory’s strategic value, though Washington has not established a military base there.

Washington’s Position Remains Unclear

No agreement on renaming the airport, granting military access, or formal recognition has been reached. Somalia’s federal government in Mogadishu, which the United States continues to recognise as sovereign over the territory, opposes Somaliland’s independence and remains a U.S. partner on counterterrorism.

Somaliland has functioned as a de facto independent state since declaring a break from Somalia in 1991, with its own government, currency and security forces, but it has never secured formal recognition from any UN member.

What Comes Next

Analysts say Somaliland’s push is unlikely to produce swift recognition given continued U.S. support for Somali sovereignty and regional opposition to redrawing the Horn of Africa’s borders. But officials in Hargeisa are betting that instability along Red Sea shipping lanes – including attacks linked to Houthi forces in Yemen, just across the Gulf from Berbera – will keep Washington’s attention on the territory’s strategic value.

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