It needs a stable Somaliland to pipe gas from a newly found field in the east to the coast.The non-Shabab parts of Somalia have every chance of seeing strong economic growth.
Earlier this year, the opening of a swimming pool, atop a hotel roof, caused local excitement.Mohamed Awale, the director of planning at the Ministry of Commerce, lauds Somaliland's regulatory reform to ease investment, but worries that without foreign recognition, Somaliland may remain stuck in "transitional" phase.
Lord Justice Lloyd Jones ruled in 2012 that there were reasonable grounds for the home secretary to believe that the men had been involved in terrorism-related activity, including plans to target western interests in Somaliland in east Africa.
That was a trip too far, but Harar is the gateway for visits to Somaliland, the breakaway state making up the northern part of Somalia, should you wish to trump your friends once and for all in pushing the frontiers of adventurous travel.
A judgment that the declaration of independence was legal would also have an impact on the wider international stage, bolstering demands for recognition by territories as diverse as Northern Cyprus, Somaliland, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Transnistria.
It also emerged after he went missing that Mohamed, whose identity was revealed following his disappearance, was seeking damages from the government in a human rights legal challenge involving allegations of torture linked to his time in Somaliland.
Both Mohamed and CF say British "officers and agents … by their acts and omissions procured, induced, encouraged or directly caused, or were otherwise complicit in" their detention, assault and mistreatment and torture while held by the Somaliland authorities.
Both he and CF allege that the British authorities were complicit in their detention and torture by the Somaliland authorities in 2011 – allegations denied by the government.
I go to Somaliland laden down with the booty that a life in the west can provide; computer, cameras, cash in my pocket and a passport that allows me to travel pretty much where I please.
Little aid reaches the disputed Sanaag region on the border of Puntland and Somaliland, as it is deemed too unsafe for international organisations to operate there.
Somaliland itself has elections scheduled for 2015, although implementation of a voter-registration system could cause delays.Yet Somaliland may soon attract increased attention.
