Request for Community Review: North-East State of Somalia

General talk
1

Dear OpenStreetMap community,

I respectfully request a transparent, evidence-based review of how North-East State of Somalia, also known as Waqooyi Bari, is represented in OpenStreetMap.

The Federal Government of Somalia now presents North-East State within the country’s federal-member-state structure. However, OSM currently has no active administrative relation or searchable label for the state. Consequently, places such as Laascaanood, Buuhoodle, and parts of the Ceerigaabo area may appear within an administrative hierarchy that does not reflect Somalia’s current federal structure.

This is not a request to draw speculative borders or promote a political position. I ask experienced OSM contributors to:

  1. Review current official and verifiable sources concerning North-East State.
  2. Examine the former Khatumo relation and determine whether it should be restored, updated, or replaced.
  3. Establish the appropriate admin_level, consistent with Somalia’s other federal member states.
  4. Review the western boundary with Somaliland and the eastern boundary with Puntland using the strongest available evidence.
  5. Preserve Somalia’s complete national boundary at admin_level=2.
  6. Update the relevant Nominatim hierarchy if a verified administrative relation is accepted.
  7. Record the evidence and community decision transparently to prevent conflicting edits.

Relevant references:

I would be grateful for guidance from local mappers, the Data Working Group, and contributors experienced in disputed or recently reorganized administrative areas. The objective is an accurate, neutral, and properly sourced map, not an edit war.

Thank you for reviewing this matter.

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Previous thread about the situation in Somalia:

3 Likes
3

Thank you for linking the earlier thread. I have reviewed it.

I also acknowledge that my earlier suggestion about another contributor’s motives or nationality was inappropriate and unsupported. I withdraw that allegation. This discussion should remain focused on verifiable geographic data.

However, the situation has materially changed since that thread. The former Khatumo relation was deleted in 2024, before the establishment of the North-East State of Somalia on 30 July 2025. The Federal Government of Somalia’s Ministry of Planning⁠ now lists North-East State among Somalia’s federal member states, while the UN Secretary-General’s Somalia report⁠ records its establishment.

I am not asking contributors to copy an unverified political map. I am requesting a fresh community review based on the updated evidence:

  • Whether a current administrative relation should be created
  • The appropriate name and admin_level
  • Which boundary segments can be reliably verified
  • How to represent disputed or uncertain sections neutrally
  • Preservation of Somalia’s complete national relation at admin_level=2

If the available evidence is insufficient to map the complete boundary, I would appreciate guidance on what sources the community would consider acceptable. My objective is accurate, transparent mapping, not an edit war.

4

Thank you for the earlier thread and for identifying the central technical issue: a boundary relation needs a stable, closed, and verifiable geometry. I have now separated the evidence for the administration’s existence from the evidence for its exact boundary.

The state’s existence and federal status are better documented than they were when former relation 16552390 was deleted in 2024:

This resolves the naming/status question more clearly, but it does not resolve the geometry question. I have not found an official, suitably licensed GIS file or a legal coordinate schedule for the complete boundary. The available evidence supports at least two different spatial interpretations:

  1. a stated-jurisdiction proxy: Sool + Sanaag + Buuhoodle/Cayn; and
  2. a narrower four-district operational proxy: Laascaanood, Xudun, Taleex, and Buuhoodle.

I prepared both as GeoJSON discussion layers using existing ADM1/ADM2 reference units. They are marked not_for_osm_import=true. The source geometry is CC BY 4.0 geoBoundaries data, so it must not be copied into OSM unless compatibility/permission and the OSM import process are satisfied. The layers are intended only to make the alternatives inspectable and to identify where additional evidence is needed.

If the community concludes that a relation is supportable, I suggest the following preliminary tags:

type=boundary
boundary=administrative
admin_level=4
name=Waqooyi Bari
name:so=Waqooyi Bari
name:en=North East State of Somalia
official_name:so=Dowlad Goboleedka Waqooyi Bari ee Soomaaliya
wikidata=Q2621587

Laascaanood should be included as an existing relation member with role admin_centre, rather than using admin_centre=Laascaanood as a tag.

I am not proposing any change to Somalia relation 192799; it should remain the complete admin_level=2 national boundary. I am also not proposing to alter Somaliland relation 3586169 or Puntland relation 13702728 without agreement on the relevant shared segments.

Could experienced boundary mappers please review these concrete questions?

  1. Does the evidence now justify an admin_level=4 relation even if some segments are disputed?
  2. Is a relation based on the stated administrative jurisdiction appropriate, or does the absence of a fixed official demarcation mean OSM should wait?
  3. Would the four-district configuration be an administrative boundary or merely an operational/control area that should not be mapped as boundary=administrative?
  4. Which existing OSM boundary ways can be reused without inventing new lines?
  5. Should relation 16552390 be restored and rebuilt, or should a new relation be created only after the geometry is agreed?
  6. What disputed=* treatment, if any, matches current OSM practice for the overlapping claims?

My recommendation is to keep the relation unpublished until those questions and the source licensing are resolved. I would welcome corrections from local mappers and contributors familiar with Somalia’s administrative geography.

north-east-state-source-units.geojson.txt (131.0 KB)

north-east-state-boundary-scenarios.geojson.txt (129.1 KB)