Independence Day (Somaliland)

Independence Day in Somaliland is an annual celebration held on May 18 in Somaliland to mark the polity's declaration of independence from the rest of Somalia, a unilateral proclamation which remains unrecognized the world over. Although internationally recognized as an autonomous region of Somalia, the twentieth anniversary of the territory's self-declared independence was celebrated in 2011 at the National Palace in Hargeisa, Somaliland's capital, with shops closing down for the day.