Ibrahim Hilal

On December 26, 2025, Africa and the Arab world witnessed a controversial political development after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel's recognition of the self-proclaimed "Republic of Somaliland" as an independent entity. The office of the Prime Minister clarified that the announcement was made with a joint signing between Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, and the President of Somaliland, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, in a step presented as being in line with the Abraham Accords, which were brokered by US President Donald Trump.

The announcement was quickly met with widespread condemnation, with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Turkey, and the African Union expressing their rejection of the move. The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement following telephone calls between Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Aty and his Somali, Djiboutian, and Turkish counterparts, considered the recognition of "the independence of parts of states' territories" to constitute a "dangerous precedent and a threat to international peace and security, as well as to the principles of international law and the United Nations Charter."

Local Welcome and a Parallel Digital Campaign

On the other hand, the government of the Somaliland region welcomed Israel's announcement, considering the recognition an important step towards enhancing its international legitimacy, and confirming its desire to establish diplomatic relations with Israel and join the Abraham Accords.

This coincided with a noticeable surge in digital activity on social media platforms. Arabi Facts Hub tracked this activity, which was spearheaded by accounts from Somalia, Israel, and others linked to the UAE. Many of these accounts openly supported Israel, and it was later uncovered that a number of them were inauthentic.

Early Activity Before the Official Announcement

On December 25th, one day before the official announcement, notable activity was observed for accounts interacting with the hashtags #Somaliland and #SomalilandRecognition, particularly "X".

Among these accounts, a Somali account named "Mohamoud Walaaleye @Ladhka," appeared on the Brand Mention analysis tool with a personal image combining the flags of Somaliland and Israel, before it was later deleted. Despite putting "Palestine" in the bio section, a review of his interactions showed explicit support for Israel, and gratitude to Netanyahu for recognizing Somaliland.

At midday on December 25, the account ✨Hamza Ahmed✨"@ham0ooz" started tweeting. This account, which dates back to 2017, does not use a real profile picture and has its location set to Africa. It interacted with the account of pro-Israel Emirati activist Amjad Taha and published a tweet supporting the secession of South Yemen, in parallel with supporting the secession of Somaliland.

Concurrently, this same account shared a video clip of a television interview, which it had reposted from the "bhlub @thebhlub" account. The reposted clip labeled the interview guests as "traitors." The source account, "bhlub @thebhlub," was established in 2017, uses a non-genuine profile image, lists its location as Europe, and exhibits a clear pattern of interaction strongly supportive of Israel, with no verifiable indicators of a real identity.

On the afternoon of December 25, the first tweet explicitly discussing Israel's recognition of Somaliland was published via the "Ali Jibril@AliJibrilMedia" account, which later added details about a potential agreement to build an Israeli military base on the Red Sea in exchange for recognition.

Ali Jibril identifies himself as a media specialist from the Somaliland region and runs a media production company in Hargeisa called Ali Jibril Media Productions and Training Center. A review of his content shows a focus on promoting secession and clear support for Israel. He interacts with pro-Israel accounts, such as "Safaa Sobhi's" account. He also publishes tweets supporting UAE policies.

Indicators of Inauthentic Accounts

Following the tweet from "Ali Jibril," numerous others repeated the news, expressing joy and celebration over Somaliland's first international recognition. The source of this recognition—even Israel, which the International Court of Justice has accused of committing genocide—did not diminish the celebration. Notably, several of the most prominent celebratory tweets originated from accounts that were explicitly Israeli or pro-Israel.

The account "@KaadiBadane" was notable among these, having been recently created in 2025. Its profile picture is a composite of the Somaliland and Israeli flags, featuring both Netanyahu and Abdirahman Mohamed. Furthermore, the account's entire activity consists of tweets supporting Somaliland's separation from Somalia and retweets of posts originating from Israeli accounts. Further suspicion was raised about the account due to X's transparency feature. It indicated that while the account's specified location was Somalia, the account holder resides in the Netherlands but was using the app from the United Kingdom. Although the account was created in September 2025, it has changed its name three times, almost once a month, which are indicators that it is a fake and inauthentic account.

The account "@cityofhargeisa" posted a tweet that featured both the Somaliland flag and the banner of the "Southern Transitional Council" (STC)—a UAE-backed group in Yemen advocating for the separation of South Yemen. The accompanying comment on the tweet was, "Very soon!" An examination of the account revealed that it published tweets supportive of both the UAE and Israel. Furthermore, the transparency feature on X indicates that the account is managed from North America, directly contradicting the account's claim of being based in Somaliland.

Similar patterns were observed with other accounts, such as "@FAbdirahman77." This was a recently created Somali account, established in 2022, that listed its location as Finland and featured the Israeli flag in its profile picture's background.

The activity of these Israel-supporting accounts predates Israel's official announcement recognizing Somaliland's independence. This suggests a coordinated campaign, which was amplified by fake accounts and spearheaded by accounts either impersonating Somali identity or belonging to Somalis who support Israel.

Volume of Interaction and Amplification Pattern

Between December 25, 2025, and early January, social media posts referencing the hashtags #Somaliland and #SomalilandRecognition accumulated approximately 30,400 posts. These posts achieved an estimated reach of 8.4 billion times and generated over 109 million interactions.

This volume of interaction is considered high compared to the number of posts and the short time frame, suggesting an unusual pattern of amplification. X accounted for about half of this content, followed by Facebook, and then Instagram and TikTok.

Posts tagged with #Somaliland and #SomalilandRecognition revealed two opposing sentiments. One trend celebrated the Israeli Prime Minister's announcement recognizing Somaliland as an independent republic. The other trend expressed anger and rejection, especially because the announcement coincided with discussions about a potential agreement to establish an Israeli military base in Somaliland.

The word cloud reflecting the most prominent hashtags and words in the posts mirrored these trends, showing the hashtag #Somaliland as the most prominent, followed by #Israel, then #Somalia, and finally a specific recognition hashtag, #SomalilandRecognition.

English posts accounted for the vast majority (97%) of the content, despite Arabic being a culturally significant language in Somalia and spoken by a considerable portion of the population. In contrast, posts in the Arabic language comprised no more than 3% of the total.

This seems logical when we look at a map identifying the location of the most interactive accounts, with the United States coming in first, followed by the United Kingdom, and then Somalia itself in third place.

Non-Somali and Fake Accounts Exaggerate the Scope of the Campaign.

The campaign experienced its initial peak on December 28th, followed by a second peak on December 30th. Analysis revealed that X was the source of approximately half of the content volume, with 7,339 accounts contributing to the publishing activity on this platform.

Leading was Grok, which published 433 posts, according to users' questions about the political situation in the Somaliland region, the position of Israel and the UAE on it, and its relationship with the central government in Somalia.

The second most active account in terms of posts was an account named "@MrMaker14," which posted 61 times. The account identifies itself as being from Somaliland but residing in the United Kingdom, and does not use a real name or a real profile picture.

At the same time, the account published several tweets supporting Israel's recognition of Somaliland's independence, and tweets supporting Israel itself. It also retweeted a post from an Israeli account and called for the secession of South Yemen to besiege the Houthis.

The number of tweets published by the account "@MrMaker14" was equal to those of another account called "@GriseldaBlanc06," which is a recent account, created in April 2025. Despite its recent creation, the account has changed its name three times and uses an AI-generated image of a woman who appears to be Somali. This account has been active in publishing purely Israeli propaganda, deliberately mentioning "Israel" in all its tweets, and showing clear support for UAE policies.

Then the account "✨️Hamza Ahmed✨️ @ham0ooz," which published 57 posts, appeared on the list. This account was one of the first accounts to interact with the campaign—as previously mentioned—and is one of the few accounts that interacted in Arabic. It also published clear support for Israel and retweeted posts from Israeli accounts. Like the other accounts we examined, it showed notable interaction with events in Yemen and expressed support for the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council.

In fifth place on the list of most interactive accounts, the account @recognizeSL appeared. This account is not new, but it doesn't use a real name and displays an AI-generated fake profile picture. It is also one of the accounts found to use Grok to generate a number of tweets about a specific topic by creating an unreal discussion, which increases comments and content reach. The account also consistently demonstrated strong support for Israel, including re-sharing posts from Israeli sources. For instance, it amplified a tweet from the Mossad's account when the agency commented on the subject of Somaliland's secession from Somalia.

Next on the list was the account "African Index @africanindex_". This account, which posts Africa-related content and specified its location as Ethiopia, was responsible for 49 tweets. However, X's transparency feature indicated its actual location as Australia. Notably, the account engages with Israeli accounts' tweets, including one that shared a video allegedly showing a young Somaliland man speaking Hebrew and expressing gratitude to Israel and Netanyahu for their policy on Somaliland. Furthermore, the account reposted a tweet from Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, which criticized Arab countries like Algeria for supporting a state exclusively for Palestinians while neglecting the establishment of a state for Somaliland.

The account @MMSomalitv also published 49 tweets. This is a recent account that appeared in 2020 and specified its location as Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland. Its tweets showed clear support for Israel, however, an examination of the account's transparency feature showed that it is managed from India.

An analysis of the most active accounts revealed a pattern. Repeated examination of these accounts, including verification of their transparency feature, showed that the majority were not genuine. These pro-Israel accounts were found to be tweeting from outside Somalia.

Who is leading the campaign celebrating Israel's recognition of the secession of Somaliland?

A network analysis was conducted using data from 15,871 X posts, revealing the existence of several central accounts that serve as hubs for distinct communities. These communities are made up of accounts that consistently interact with and comment on the central accounts. This behavior serves to amplify the content of these central accounts and disseminate it throughout the wider campaign network.

Statistical analysis subsequently revealed a high degree of cohesion and communication among the accounts. This analysis also identified specific communities that serve as the amplification nodes of the campaign.

The first of these communities was led by a central account called "@RepOfSomaliland," a relatively new account created in 2022 and officially verified by X in 2025. Although the account specified its location as Somaliland, X's transparency feature located it in West Asia.

The account also included a link to a website with the same name, and the electronic domain checker tool showed that the domain was registered in 2023 in the United States.

Another central account that received significant interaction from the participating accounts in the campaign was the account "@georgegallowa," which belongs to a British politician and media personality, a seven-time member of the British Parliament, who opposes Western policies in the Middle East.

The account "@georgegallowa" was one of the central accounts representing the other side, opposing Israel's recognition of Somaliland as an independent republic and opposing Somaliland's secession. However, the account appeared fully integrated with the rest of the network and its communities, which suggests that the accounts supporting secession and interacting with the campaign are the same ones that interacted with and attacked the "@georgegalloway" account.

On the other hand, the account @nivcalderon, an Israeli journalist based in New York, was active as a central account within the campaign. After Israel announced its recognition of Somaliland as an independent republic, Niv Calderon interacted with the topic and with a number of Somali accounts, as he himself said on his account, welcoming the interaction from accounts in Somaliland.

This analysis concludes that the online interaction preceding and accompanying Israel's announcement of recognition of Somaliland was characterized by a high degree of coordination and amplification, led by a network of accounts supporting Israel and others pretending to be Somalian, most of which are managed from outside Somalia. This network clearly adopts political narratives supportive of Israel and aligned with Emirati stances in the Horn of Africa, in addition to supporting other separatist projects in the region. This presents a model for how cross-border digital campaigns are employed to reshape the public debate on sensitive sovereign issues.