Somalia (/sɵˈmɑːliə/ so-mah-lee-ə; Somali: Soomaaliya; Arabic: الصومال‎ aṣ-Ṣūmāl), officially the Federal Republic of Somalia[1] (Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Federaalka Soomaaliya, Arabic: جمهورية الصومال الفدرالية‎Jumhūrīyat aṣ-Ṣūmāl al-Fidirālīyah), is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Kenya to the southwest. Somalia has the longest coastline on the continent's mainland,[6] and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands.[3] Climatically, hot conditions prevail year-round, with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall.[7]
Somalia has a population of around 10 million. Around 85% of residents are ethnic Somalis,[3] who have historically inhabited the northern part of the country. Ethnic minorities make up the remainder and are largely concentrated in the southern regions.[8] The official languages of Somalia are Somali and Arabic, both of which belong to the Afro-Asiatic family.[3] Most people in the country are Muslim,[9] with the majority beingSunni.[10]
In antiquity, Somalia was an important commercial centre,[11][12] and is among the most probable locations of the fabled ancient Land of Punt.[13][14][15][16] During the Middle Ages, several powerful Somali empires dominated the regional trade, including the Ajuran Empire, the Adal Sultanate, the Warsangali Sultanate, and the Geledi Sultanate. In the late 19th century, through a succession of treaties with these kingdoms, the British and Italians gained control of parts of the coast and established the colonies of British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland.[17][18] In the interior, Muhammad Abdullah Hassan's Dervish State successfully repelled the British Empire four times and forced it to retreat to the coastal region.[19] The Dervishes were finally defeated in 1920 by British airpower.[20] Italy acquired full control of the northeastern and southern parts of the area after successfully waging the so-called Campaign of the Sultanates against the ruling Majeerteen Sultanate and Sultanate of Hobyo.[18] Italian occupation lasted until 1941, yielding to British military administration. Northern Somalia would remain a protectorate, while southern Somalia became a United Nations Trusteeship in 1949. In 1960, the two regions united to form the independent Somali Republic under a civilian government.[21] Mohamed Siad Barre seized power in 1969 and established the Somali Democratic Republic. In 1991, Barre's government collapsed as the Somali Civil War broke out.
In the absence of a central government, Somalia's residents reverted to local forms of conflict resolution. A few autonomous regions, including the Somaliland, Puntland and Galmudug administrations, emerged in the north in the ensuing process of decentralization. The early 2000s saw the creation of fledgling interim federal administrations. The Transitional National Government (TNG) was established in 2000, followed by the formation of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in 2004, which reestablished national institutions such as the military.[3][3][22] In 2006, the TFG, assisted by Ethiopian troops, assumed control of most of the nation's southern conflict zones from the newly formed Islamic Courts Union (ICU). The ICU subsequently splintered into more radical groups such as Al-Shabaab, which battled the TFG and its AMISOM allies for control of the region,[3] with the insurgents losing most of the territory that they had seized by mid-2012. In 2011–2012, a political process providing benchmarks for the establishment of permanent democratic institutions was launched.[23] Within this administrative framework a new provisional constitution was passed in August 2012[24][25] which reformed Somalia as a federation.[26] Following the end of the TFG's interim mandate the same month, the Federal Government of Somalia, the first permanent central government in the country since the start of the civil war, was formed.[27] The nation has concurrently experienced a period of intense reconstruction, particularly in the capital, Mogadishu.[23][28] Through the years, Somalia has maintained an informal economy, based mainly on livestock, remittances, and telecommunications.[3][29]