Ethiopia has recently recognised Somaliland passports, and Ethiopian Airlines has announced the first scheduled flights to Hargeisa.

ECONOMIST: Somaliland

In Hargeisa, where 50, 000 died during the war of re-independence, a Somali MiG jet used to bomb the city sits atop a poignant memorial.

BBC: Somaliland: Africa��s unofficial country

Mr Egal has even let slip that Somaliland's currency reserves are sitting in the State Bank of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, pending the opening of a Hargeisa branch.

ECONOMIST: Somaliland

In the dusty local market in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, rows of currency traders set up stalls on the side of the road with money they value by weight.

BBC: Somaliland: Africa��s unofficial country

His play, The Great Hargeisa Goat Bubble, managed to explain the boom and bust in credit derivatives leading up to the financial crisis of 2008-09, all with the help of a crazy parable involving goats.

BBC: The Squanderland Roof and the eurozone crisis

Hargeisa has expanded even faster.

ECONOMIST: Somalia��s woes

In woebegone Hargeisa, the dusty and crumbling capital of Somaliland, a young university student insisted on paying for our tea at a cafe, thanking us profusely for engaging with him in a discussion about religion, politics and America that was eye-opening for Levi and me.

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