Somalia

Somalia A country on the so-called ‘horn’ in the north-east of Africa.

Physical

Somalia has north and south-east coasts on the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean and borders Ethiopia and Kenya inland. Along its north coast, desert plains rise to the red sandstone hills of a northern plateau. There the only vegetation is thornscrub. The south of the country is lower and has one permanent river, the Juba, as a source of irrigation.

Economy

One of Africa's poorest countries and heavily dependent on foreign aid, Somalia has suffered from drought, flooding, famine, civil war, and high foreign debt in recent years. The main exports are livestock and bananas; other crops are sugarcane, maize, and sorghum. Industry is confined to processing agricultural products. Mineral resources include lead, gold, zircon, coal, uranium, and kyanite, but most of these are not fully exploited.

History

The kingdom of Punt, mentioned in ancient Egyptian writings, probably occupied the area of Somalia's northern and eastern coastline. Muslim Arabs and Persians established trading routes in the area between the 7th and 10th centuries AD. Somali nomads had lived in the interior area from at least the 10th century AD and Galla peoples lived in the south and west of the country. After the British occupied Aden (now in Yemen) in 1839 European exploration of the region commenced. The area of the ‘horn’ of Africa was divided between British, French and Italian spheres of influence in the late 19th century. The modern Somali Republic is a result of the unification in 1960 of the former British Somaliland Protectorate and the Italian Trusteeship Territory of Somalia. From then onwards Somalia was involved in border disputes with Kenya and Ethiopia. In 1969 President Shermarke was assassinated in a left-wing coup and the Marxist Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party took power, renaming the country the Somali Democratic Republic under the dictatorship of General Muhammad Siyad Barrah (c.1911–95). There followed 21 years of one-man rule, with a sharply deteriorating economy and an escalating civil war. Fighting broke out in 1988 between government forces and rebel groups, the most important of which being the Somali National Movement (SNM). The country, already hit by drought, now descended into what has been described as the world's ‘worst man-made disaster’, as refugees fled the insurgents and famine and disease took their toll. Siyad Barrah fled office in January 1991, forming a breakaway grouping, the Somali National Front. The SNM proclaimed a Somaliland Republic in the north reviving the republic that had briefly succeeded the former British Somaliland protectorate and repudiating a union with ex-Italian Somalia. By mid-1992 some six million people were facing starvation, as UN troops were deployed against rival warlords throughout the country and relief agencies tried, in the face of the warlords' opposition, to alleviate the suffering. After UN peacekeeping forces, led by the USA, had failed to maintain a ceasefire, troops were withdrawn by March 1995. General Muhammad Aidid (1936–96) declared himself President in 1995, but this was not accepted by the international community. In 1996 he was killed in battle and was succeeded by his son, Hussein Aidid.

Capital:	Mogadishu
Area:	637,000 sq km (246,000 sq miles)
Population:	6,842,000 (1998 est)
Currency:	1 Somali shilling = 100 cents
Religions:	Sunni Muslim 99.8%; Christian 0.1%
Ethnic Groups:	Somali 98.3%; Arab 1.2%; Bantu 0.4%
Languages:	Somali, Arabic, English (official); Italian; Swahili
International Organizations:	UN; OAU; Arab League