What is the population of Somalia?
9,639,000. The population of Somalia is projected to grow up to about 20 million by 2020, and just under 30 million by 2040.
What is the 'official' language of Somalia?
Somali. Arabic, Italian, and English are all spoken in Somalia but Somali is the official language.
What is the capital city of Somalia?
Mogadishu. Addis Ababa is the capitaL city of Ethiopia, Djibouti is the capital of Djibouti, and Nairobi is the capital city of Kenya.
Somalia Flag
Somali Flag Meaning:
The blue base originates from the flag of the United Nations and it represents the blue sky over Somalia and the UN, who helped the country realize its dream of independence. The white star represents African freedom. The star's individual points represent the five historical regions inhabited by the Somali people: Italian Somaliland (Somalia), British Somaliland (Somalia), French Somaliland (Djibouti), the Ogaden region of Ethiopia and north Kenya.
Somali Flag History:
The Somali flag was adopted on October 12, 1954 and it was inspired by the flag of the United Nations who had previously named the country as a trustee of Italy for 10 years. In 1960 Somalia gained independence and united with the former British Somaliland. The present day Somalia consists of the former Italian Somaliland and British Somaliland nations.
Interesting Somali Flag Facts:
Mr. Mohammed Awale Liban designed the Somali flag and presented it to the government in less than 24 hours
Famous People Born In Somalia
From being the one of first professional female singers in Somalia to being the first female in Mogadishu to drive a taxi cab before seeking refuge in Denmark, Maryam Mursal’s life has been marked by struggle and trail-blazing when necessary for her passions and to simply ensure the survival of her family. In 1966, backing centuries of men-only tradition, the teenage Mursal became one of the first professional female vocalists of the Muslim faith. It wasn’t long before her mastery of the Islamic and African music native to her country won over her fellow Somalians, and Mursal’s own lively blend of music, Somali jazz, which she developed singing in nightclubs, became the sound of her homeland.
Through her career in Somalia, she performed solo and with Waaberi a 300-member music and dance troupe associated with the Somali National Theatre. A piece from Interview Magazine’s Ray Rogers in March 1998, describes her accomplishments in Somalia and exile to Denmark by way of Djibouti, “In 1986 Mursal sang a song called “Ulimada” (“The Professors”), a thinly veiled criticism of her country’s ruling dictator, which led to a ban of her music and another first: In order to feed her family, Mursal became Somalia’s first female taxi driver.
When the regime fell in 1991, Mursal once again became a shining star in her country. Soon, though, the intertribal fighting in Somalia escalated, sending her and her five children packing.
They spent seven months crossing the Horn of Africa by foot, bus, any means necessary, to safety. Mursal was eventually granted refugee status by Denmark, where she was discovered singing to a crowd of three hundred fellow refugees in 1992 by Soren Kjoer Jensen, now her producer and manager. He brought Mursal to the attention of Peter Gabriel, who decided to sign her to his Real World label in 1994.”
In July 1997 Real World released “New Dawn,” Maryam’s recording with the core survivors of the band Waaberi, once a 300-strong troupe of singers, dancers, musicians and actors from the Somalian National Theatre before the destruction of the civil war.
According to her page on the Real World website, one day Maryam hopes to return home to Somalia. “The first good thing I hear about my country, the first suggestion that it is changing, and I will go back – and quickly. It might take five years or even ten years but one day things will change. Everybody needs their country. At home you can be a star but then as a refugee you are looked at like a dog. I am a refugee but I am also a singer. That is my job and that is how I survive.”
You can see Maryam Mursal on two YouTube videos. The first opens in the middle of a performance of Cidlaan Dareemaya (I Feel Alone), contains an interview, and then closes with a performance of Heesteema.
Drought, Civil War and Anarchy
Africa's worst drought of the century occurred in 1992, and, coupled with the devastation of civil war, Somalia was plunged into a severe famine that killed 300,000. U.S. troops were sent in to protect the delivery of food in Dec. 1992, and in May 1993 the UN took control of the relief efforts from the U.S. The warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid ambushed UN troops and dragged American bodies through the streets, causing an about-face in U.S. willingness to involve itself in the fate of this lawless country. The last of the U.S. troops departed in late March, leaving 19,000 UN troops behind.
Since 1991 Somalia has been engulfed in anarchy. Years of peace negotiations between the various factions were fruitless, and warlords and militias ruled over individual swaths of land. In 1991, a breakaway nation, the Somaliland Republic, proclaimed its independence. Since then several warlords have set up their own ministates in Puntland and Jubaland. Although internationally unrecognized, these states have been peaceful and stable.
In Aug. 2000, a parliament convened in nearby Djibouti and elected Somalia's first government in nearly a decade. After its first year in office, the government still controlled only 10% of the country, and in Aug. 2003, its mandate expired. In Oct. 2002, new talks to establish a government began; in Aug. 2004 a 275-member transitional parliament was inaugurated for a five-year term. Parliament selected a national president in September, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the president of the breakaway region of Puntland. The new government, however, spent its first year operating out of Kenya—Somalia remained too violent and unstable to enter—eventually settling in the provincial town of Baidoa.
In May 2006, the country's worst outbreak of violence in 10 years began, with Islamist militias, called the Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC), battling rival warlords. On June 6, the Islamist militia seized control of the capital, Mogadishu, and established control in much of the south. Somalia's transitional government, led by President Abdullahi Yusuf and situated in Baidoa, spent months engaged in unsuccessful peace negotiations with the Islamic Courts Council. In the meantime, neighboring Ethiopia, which has clashed in the past with Somalia's Islamists and considers them a threat to regional security, began amassing troops on the border. In mid-December, Ethiopia launched air strikes against the Islamists, and in a matter of days Ethiopian ground troops and Somali soldiers loyal to the transitional government regained control of Mogadishu. A week later most of the Islamists had been forced to flee the country. Ethiopia announced that its troops would remain in the country until stability was assured and a functional central government had been established, ending Somalia's 15 years of anarchy.
History
From 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.
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.
Government
Between 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.
For more informations:http://tfgsomalia.net/English%20Language/
Geography
Somalia, 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.
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