Somaliland is on the Gulf of Aden.
Belgians released in Somaliland
Wed 16/08/06 - The three Belgian police officers who were detained in Somaliland on Tuesday, were released on Wednesday afternoon. The three had just finished escorting a failed asylum seeker back there, when they were detained. Somaliland is a breakaway region of Northern Somalia, which is not recognised by the international community.
The authorities there claimed that the three Belgian police officers didn't have the correct visa to enter Somaliland.
The Federal Police officers had flown into Somaliland on Tuesday morning, landing at Hargeisa Airport.
Hargeisa (photo) is the self-proclaimed capital of Somaliland, which broke away from the rest of Somalia after the fall of the Somali dictator Siad Barre in 1991.
House arrest
The three officers were to have returned straight away, after ensuring that the asylum seeker was safely returned to his homeland.
However, the three were taken from the aircraft and detained, while the asylum seeker was put back on the plane.
The Belgians had to hand over their passports and plane tickets before being taken to a hotel, where they stayed under house arrest.
Pressure exerted by the Belgian Embassy in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on the authorities in Somaliland to get the three police officers released as quickly as possible resulted in their release later on Thursday.
Diplomatic isolation
Somaliland is a former British protectorate on the Gulf of Aden.
It became part of the newly-independent state of Somalia in 1960.
The region split from the rest of Somalia in 1991, after the fall of the Somali dictator Siad Barre.
Somaliland declared itself independent 15 years ago, but to this day, the country is not recoginised by the international community.
Nevertheless, in contrast to the rest of Somalia, Somaliland is politically stable.
The majority of the region's 3.5 million people are Muslims.