The Israac community centre is a walk- in community service welcoming all, but is mainly based around Somali and Somaliland culture. Many Somalilanders have made Sheffield their home since the 1990s and have fought hard, along with Somalilanders all around the world, for the recognition of Somaliland as an independent state.
In a parliamentary debate last week, there was cross-party agreement by UK MPs in favour of the UK recognition of Somaliland and this very much reflects the views of the Somaliland community.
Due to this debate, the people of Somaliland celebrated in the streets last week in a heartwarming moment of joy, in which even the police got involved.
The UK government invests in Somaliland, including in a new port which has opened up on the coast in the north and a new airport paid for by the UAE. However, the UK still does not formerly recognise Somaliland as an independent nation.
A petition is already going around in the UK to formally recognise Somaliland, and the community would like to educate people about Somaliland and encourage everyone to learn about the history of Somaliland and get involved with the petition.
Sheffield City Council was the first local authority to formally recognise Somaliland, in a move which was welcomed by the Somaliland community and has led to more councils across the UK following suit, including Cardiff and Birmingham.
Diana, a friend of the Israac community, says a lot of work as been done by the community to a achieve the progress they have made so far.
“Sheffield City Council was the first council to formally recognise that Somaliland should be an independent nation. There has been a lot of work done here in Sheffield, and the people are responsible for that,” she said.
“They have put in that hard work and it means a lot and there are other cities now – Birmingham, Cardiff – who have also done that.
“There is a huge amount of history that goes with this. A lot of Somalilanders came here in the early 1990s because they suffered genocide from the Somalis.”
Somalilanders have now also decided to cease talks with Somalia as Somalia no longer has a government.
The history is quite chilling – many Somalilanders in Britain today have witnessed and endured terrible things, which has formally been recognised as genocide against Somaliland by the UN during the ‘forgotten genocide’ of the Somali civil war.