Somaliland (Somali: Soomaaliland, Arabic: صوماللاند‎ Ṣūmālilānd or أرض الصومال Arḍ aṣ-Ṣūmāl) is an unrecognised self-declared de facto sovereign state that is internationally recognised as an autonomous region of Somalia. The government of Somaliland regards itself as the successor state to the British Somaliland protectorate, which was independent on June 26, 1960 as the State of Somaliland, before uniting with the Trust Territory of Somalia (the former Italian Somaliland) on July 1, 1960 to form the Somali Republic.

Somaliland is bordered by Ethiopia in the south and west, Djibouti in the northwest, the Gulf of Aden in the north, and the autonomous Puntland region of Somalia to the east.

In 1988, the Siad Barre regime committed massacres against the people of Somaliland, which were among the events that led to the Somali Civil War. The war left the economic and military infrastructure severely damaged. After the collapse of the central government in 1991, the local government, led by the Somali National Movement (SNM), declared independence from the rest of Somalia on May 18 of the same year.

Rageh Omaar ( /ˈræɡi ˈoʊmɑː/; Somali: Raage Oomaar, Arabic: راجح عمر‎), (born 19 July 1967) is a Somali born British journalist and writer. His latest book Only Half of Me deals with the tensions between these two sides of his identity. He used to be a BBC world affairs correspondent, where he made his name reporting from Iraq. In September 2006, he moved to a new post at Al Jazeera English, where he presented the nightly weekday documentary series Witness until January 2010. The Rageh Omaar Report, first aired February 2010, is a new one-hour, monthly investigative documentaries in which Rageh Omaar reports on the world's most important current affairs stories.

Rageh was born in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. He is the son of a wealthy businessman from the northwestern Somaliland region of Somalia. A Muslim, Rageh's family is originally from Hargeisa.

Rageh moved to the United Kingdom when he was two years old. He was educated at two independent schools: the Dragon School in Oxford, Oxfordshire and Cheltenham College in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He later studied Modern History at New College at the University of Oxford.

Ahmed Ismail Samatar (Somali: Axmed Ismaciil Samatar, Arabic: أحمد إسماعيل سمتر‎) is a prominent Somali writer, professor and former dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester College. He is the editor of Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies and brother of Abdi Ismail Samatar.

Dr. Ahmed I. Samatar is currently the James Wallace Professor and retired Dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester College. Professor Samatar has lectured at many universities and colleges, including Cornell, Harvard, Iowa, London School of Economics and Political Science, Somali National University, Toronto, University of Amsterdam, York, University of Otago, and Wellesley College. Samatar, whose expertise is in the areas of global political economy, political and social thought, and Somali affairs, is the author/editor of five books and over thirty articles, including The African State: Reconsiderations (Heinemann, 2002) and Somalia: State Collapse, Multilateral Intervention, and Strategies for Political Reconstruction (Brookings Institution, 1995). Professor Samatar is the founding editor-in-chief of Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies. He is also the editor of 24 Volumes of Macalester International, a journal of undergraduate education and internationalism. His current research is on two tracks: leadership and the state in Somalia, and globalization and the rise of Islamic consciousness. In the special commissioned volume of Bildhaan which focuses on the exigencies of transition in Somalia, Samatar's article is titled: The Porcupine Dilemma: Govenance and Transition in Somalia (Volume 7, 2007). His recent articles include: A Virtuosic Touch: Hodeide, a Life with the Oud and More (Bildhaan, Volume 8, 2008), and Battling Two Fronts: Introducing Maryen Omer Ali (Bildhaan, Volume 9, 2009.