Abstract: Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia and has acted like a separate country ever since, though without recognition from any foreign state. Mohammed Ibrahim Egal, a former president of the united Somalia, is president, but Somaliland itself is divided along clan lines.

HARGEISA

THE republic of Somaliland has a bloated bureaucracy, a rebel movement, a feeble economy and soaring inflation. It is ruled by a portly old president with a Rolex watch and dictatorial instincts. It is a country, you might think, typical of the old, unreformed Africa.

Not quite. It is not even a country. It declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991. It has its own flag and national anthem, its own army and police, its own currency. Its government collects its own revenues, from taxes levied at ports and roadblocks and vehicle licences (even donkey carts that deliver water must be licensed and taxed). Certainly the writ of Mogadishu, the theoretical capital of Somalia, barely a country itself, does not run. Yet Somaliland remains unrecognised--and unsure of its own identity. "President" Mohammed Ibrahim Egal controls only half of his would-be state.

The eastern area of Sanaag, home to a powerful clan other than his own, is not hostile but unadministered. Areas along the Ethiopian border are plagued by clan militias, armed with Kalashnikovs, some aged tanks and a few dozen "technicals"--pick-up trucks mounted with machineguns or heavier weapons. Fighting has killed hundreds. Though it diminished recently, the central city of Burao is deserted and mined, most of its normal 250,000 residents too frightened to return. Even the airport of the capital, Hargeisa, remains closed.

Ill-armed gangs of no more than a few hundred should be little match for Somaliland's army of 15,000. But Mr Egal says he does not want to humiliate his opponents and so ruin any chance of political reconciliation. A committee of Somalis from abroad has been trying to mediate. "There is no tangible reason for this war," says Hassan Mogag Samager, one of the mediators, "but these militias make war as a business. They have no other future."

The economic strain is great. The regime's only significant revenues come from the port of Berbera, about $30,000 a day in taxes on the export of sheep, goats, camels and cattle to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Though these exports have more than tripled in the past two years, the government can still meet only 60% of its costs. It covers the rest by importing planeloads of Somaliland shillings freshly printed in Britain.

This has had the natural result. Prices of flour, rice and cooking oil tripled between February and April, and the exchange rate reacted accordingly. "Every morning we find cigarettes cost more," laments Mohamoud Osman in his barber's shop built of sticks and cardboard. "It could cause a crisis. As life gets harder, people will take to violence."

Many regions still use the shillings of Somalia, grubby but holding their value because there are no new notes. Mr Egal blames his economic woes on merchants, for using dollars, and the legislature -- yes, there is one -- to block his attempts to fix the exchange rate. That was a rare show of defiance; merchants could not stop him ordering livestock exporters to change 20% of each sale into shillings. Many businessmen are moving their trade from Berbera to the port of Bosaso, beyond his reach.

Critics accuse Mr Egal of behaving like a dictator. "He is the cabinet, customs manager, revenue officer--he's everything," says Ahmed Mohammed Silyano, a member of parliament. Mr Egal, who rarely leaves his palace and calls his parliamentary foes "obstructionists", offers no apologies: "My government has to have the power to run this country and build it from chaos."

Mr Egal was a central figure in bringing his country to independence from British rule in 1960. Almost at once it united with the rest of today's Somalia, colonised by Italy in the 1880s but latterly run by Britain. He became prime minister of the new united republic, but was jailed in 1969, after a coup by the top soldier, Mohamed Siad Barre, who was to be Somalia's boss until he was kicked out in 1991.

The Siad Barre years were bad ones for Somalia. The north produced a rebel movement in the 1980s, and saw fierce fighting at the end of the decade. Hundreds of thousands of civilians fled Hargeisa and other towns, many preferring the relative safety of Ethiopia. The Somali air force bombed them as they fled. In all, perhaps 40,000 northerners died. When they returned after the Somali army abandoned the north, the refugees found their homes looted and destroyed or, worse, mined. Hundreds, mostly women and children, were blown up or maimed on their return. Much of Hargeisa is still rubble.

Unsurprisingly, in the chaos since Siad Barre, the northerners declared independence, under the slogan "No more Mogadishu". But that was about all they could agree on. In 1993 a conference of clan elders brought Mr Egal to power. He should be preparing the country for a presidential election at the end of this year, but few expect it to happen. Mr Egal has brought in a Sudanese lawyer to draft a constitution with an executive-style presidency. Parliament has drafted one favouring itself.