Somaliland

( AFP/Getty Images / May 18, 2011 )

Residents of the Somali breakaway territory of Somaliland sit on a wall as they watch a independance day celebration parade in Hargeisa. This territory with an estimated population of 3.5 million people which straddles the Gulf of Aden and borders Djibouti and Ethiopia declared independance after the overthrow of Somali military dictator Siad Barre in 1991. Somaliland has a working political system, government institutions, a police force and its own currency and last year held presidential elections that international observers declared to be free and fair.