Country, eastern Africa. Located in the Horn of Africa, it stretches from the Equator to the Red Sea. Area: 246,000 sq mi (637,000 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 8,228,000 (excluding an estimated 400,000 refugees in other countries). Capital: Mogadishu. Most of the people are nomadic or seminomadic Somali. Languages: Somali, Arabic (both official). Religion: Islam (official; predominantly Sunni). Currency: Somali shilling. Much of Somalia is semidesert. The central and southern regions are flat, while the northern region rises to form rugged mountain ranges. Only a tiny proportion of its land is arable, though more than half is grazeable.
Somalia has a developing mixed economy based largely on livestock and agriculture. It is one of the poorest countries in the world. Muslim Arabs and Persians first established trading posts along the coasts in the 7th–10th centuries. 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. 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. During World War II the Italians invaded British Somaliland (1940); a year later British troops retook the area. Britain administered the region until 1950, when Italian Somaliland became a UN trust territory. In 1960 it was united with the former British Somaliland, and the two became the independent Republic of Somalia. Since then it has suffered political and civil strife, including military dictatorship, civil wars, drought, and famine. No effective central government has existed since the early 1990s. In 1991 a Republic of Somaliland was proclaimed by a breakaway group on territory corresponding to the former British Somaliland. It did not receive international recognition, but it operated more smoothly than the area of traditional Somalia. A UN peacekeeping force intervened in 1992 to secure food supplies; fighting continued, and the peacekeeping force left in 1995. The country subsequently remained in turmoil.
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