By Roger Hearing in Hargeisa
Mohammed Egal is the president of a country that does not exist.
Somaliland shows up on no United Nations maps, it has no representatives on
international bodies.
It does not figure in treaties or agreements, it has no IMF loans or tariff
barriers.
But from his modest house on Hargeisa's dusty main street, President Egal
does oversee a state that runs as efficiently as many states on the African
continent, and better than some.
State trappings
It has its own flag, its own coinage, its own car numberplates, and a police
force that seems well able to keep crime down and traffic rolling.
But technically and legally Somaliland is still just a region of the failed
state of Somalia. For the moment, no one outside its borders is prepared to give
Somaliland the recognition it wants.
Radio Hargeisa
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