Independence Day (Somaliland)

Independence Day in Somaliland (Arabic:عيد استقلال أرض الصومال) is an annual celebration held on 18 May in Somaliland to mark the polity's declaration of independence from the Somali Democratic Republic, a unilateral proclamation which remains unrecognized the world over. Although internationally seen only as an autonomous area of Somalia, the territory's self-declared independence has endured, and the twentieth anniversary was celebrated in 2011 at the National Palace in Hargeisa, Somaliland's capital, with shops closing down for the day.