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 Somalia| Facts & Figures |
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| President: Sheikh Sharif Sheikh
Ahmad (2009) Prime Minister: Omar Abdirashid
Ali Sharmarke (2009) Land area: 242,216 sq mi (627,339 sq km);
total area: 246,199 sq mi (637,657 sq km) Population (2009 est.): 9,832,017
(growth rate: 2.8%); birth rate: 43.7/1000; infant mortality rate:
109.1/1000; life expectancy: 49.6; density per sq mi: 38
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Mogadishu, 1,208,800 Monetary unit: Somali
shilling More Facts & Figures |
GeographySomalia, situated in the Horn of Africa, lies along the Gulf of Aden
and the Indian Ocean. It is bounded by Djibouti in the northwest, Ethiopia
in the west, and Kenya in the southwest. In area it is slightly smaller
than Texas. Generally arid and barren, Somalia has two chief rivers, the
Shebelle and the Juba.
GovernmentBetween Jan. 1991 and Aug. 2000, Somalia had no working government. A
fragile parliamentary government was formed in 2000, but it expired in
2003 without establishing control of the country. In 2004, a new
transitional parliament was instituted and elected a president.
HistoryFrom the 7th to the 10th century, Arab and Persian trading posts were
established along the coast of present-day Somalia. Nomadic tribes
occupied the interior, occasionally pushing into Ethiopian territory. In
the 16th century, Turkish rule extended to the northern coast, and the
sultans of Zanzibar gained control in the south.
After British occupation of Aden in 1839, the Somali coast became its
source of food. The French established a coal-mining station in 1862 at
the site of Djibouti, and the Italians planted a settlement in Eritrea.
Egypt, which for a time claimed Turkish rights in the area, was succeeded
by Britain. By 1920, a British and an Italian protectorate occupied what
is now Somalia. The British ruled the entire area after 1941, with Italy
returning in 1950 to serve as United Nations trustee for its former
territory.
By 1960, Britain and Italy granted independence to their respective
sectors, enabling the two to join as the Republic of Somalia on July 1,
1960. Somalia broke diplomatic relations with Britain in 1963 when the
British granted the Somali-populated Northern Frontier District of Kenya
to the Republic of Kenya.
On Oct. 15, 1969, President Abdi Rashid Ali Shermarke was assassinated
and the army seized power. Maj. Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre, as president of a
renamed Somali Democratic Republic, leaned heavily toward the USSR. In
1977, Somalia openly backed rebels in the easternmost area of Ethiopia,
the Ogaden Desert, which had been seized by Ethiopia at the turn of the
century. Somalia acknowledged defeat in an eight-month war against the
Ethiopians that year, having lost much of its 32,000-man army and most of
its tanks and planes. President Siad Barre fled the country in late Jan.
1991. His departure left Somalia in the hands of a number of clan-based
guerrilla groups, none of which trusted each other.
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