Independence Day in Somaliland is an annual celebration held on May 18 in Somaliland to mark the polity's declaration of independence from the Somali Democratic Republic,[1] a unilateral proclamation which remains unrecognized the world over.[2] Although internationally recognized as an autonomous area of Somalia,[3] 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.[4]