The view from Somaliland

Republicans are currently attacking Ilhan Omar for her "Somalia First" speech, et cetera. Interestingly, the US lobby for the breakaway republic of Somaliland also condemns Omar, who apparently questioned the Somaliness of the Somalilanders. This internationally unrecognized entity nevertheless enjoys friendly relations with a number of other nations, including Somalia´s traditional enemy Ethiopia. From the X account of Fatima A Ali, presumably a Somaliland influencer:  

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Dear United States of America, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is denying the humanity of more than 6 million Somalilanders for her political gain. This self proclaimed “progressive” scoffs at democracy and favors bigotry when her side is the one holding the power. A few days ago, Congresswoman Omar attended an event where she talked about the recent Memorandum of Understanding between Ethiopia and Somaliland. This MoU involves Ethiopia leasing sea access from Somaliland for 50 years in exchange for financial considerations, closer economic ties, and Somaliland receiving its long overdue recognition. Somaliland has been a successful democratic story for the past 33 years. In 2017, The Economist called Somaliland “East Africa’s strongest democracy.” Somalia claims Somaliland, but has no democratic credibility or authority in Somaliland. In fact, no president from Somalia has set foot in Somaliland in more than 33 years. Ilhan Omar prides herself of being a progressive who is for the people, yet in her speech, she represented the people of Somaliland who are ethnically as every bit of a Somali as she is as “people who claim to be Somali.” She does this with an undeniably disgusted look on her face. Americans may not realize the bigotry behind the Congresswoman’s disdain, which is rooted in the same oppressive mentality she claims to fight. This becomes clear when you realize that most, though not all Somalilanders, are from the Isaaq Clan, which has already suffered a genocide from the Somalia dictator Siad Barre in the 80s. Given that background, Americans can hopefully see how alarmed Somalilanders are when they hear more of this anti-Somaliland rhetoric coming from a sitting US congresswoman!

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For information purposes only. I have no particular horse in this race, but I have noted that Somaliland is usually considered more "pro-Western" in some political sense.