The capital is Mogadishu (in Somali, Muqdisho or Xamar in the colonial Italian rendering, Mogadiscio). With an area of about 246,000 square miles (637,000 square kilometres), it is bounded on the north by the Gulf of Aden and on the east by the Indian Ocean from its southern point, its western border is bounded by Kenya and Ethiopia and, to the northwest, by Djibouti. It occupies an important geopolitical position between sub-Saharan Africa and the countries of Arabia and southwestern Asia. Somali Soomaaliya, Arabic As-Sumal, country on the Horn of Africa.
The country remained in turmoil into the beginning of the 21st century.ģ. A UN peacekeeping force intervened in 1992 to secure food supplies fighting continued and the peacekeeping force left in 1995. It did not receive international recognition, but it operated more smoothly than the area of traditional Somalia. In 1991 a proclamation of a Republic of Somaliland, on territory corresponding to the former British Somaliland, was issued by a breakaway group. In the 1990s no effective central government existed. Since then it has suffered political and civil strife, including military dictatorship, civil wars, drought and famine. In 1960 it was united with the former British Somaliland and the two became the independent Republic of Somalia. During World War II the Italians invaded British Somaliland (1940) a year later British troops retook the area and Britain administered the region until 1950, when Italian Somaliland became a UN trust territory. Intensive European exploration began after the British occupation of Aden in 1839 and in the late 19th century Britain and Italy set up protectorates in the region. By the 10th century Somali nomads occupied the area inland from the Gulf of Aden and the south and west were inhabited by various groups of pastoral Oromo peoples. Muslim Arabs and Persians first established trading posts along the coasts in the 7th–10th centuries. It is one of the poorest countries in the world. Somalia has a developing, mixed economy based largely on livestock and agriculture. Only a very small percentage of its land is arable, though more than half is grazeable. The central and southern regions are flat, while the northern region rises to form rugged mountain ranges. Language: Somali, Arabic (both official). Most of the people are nomadic or seminomadic Somali. Population (2002): 7,753,000 (excluding an estimated 450,000 refugees in other countries).
Located in the Horn of Africa, it stretches from the Equator to the Red Sea.
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