Somalia,officially the Federal Republic of Somalia is a country located in the 'Horn of Africa'(The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the gulf of Aden and It is the easternmost projection of the Africa Continent which covers approximately 2,000,000 km² (770,000 sq mi) and is inhabited by roughly 100 million people (Ethiopia: 85 million, Somalia: 9.3 million, Eritrea: 5.2 million, and Djibouti: 0.86 million)
About 85% of local residents are Ethnic Somalis,who have historically inhabited the northern part of the country.Ethnic minority groups make up the remainder of the nation's population, and are largely concentrated in the southern regions
Most people being Muslims, the majority being Sunni
Capital Mogadishu
Currency Somali Shilling
Official Lanuguage Somali and Arabic
Population 10 Million(2012 estimate)
Somalia is officially divided into 18 Regions, which in turn are subdivided into districts
On a de facto basis, northern Somalia is now divided up among the Autonomous Regions of Puntland (which considers itself an Autonomous State) and Somaliland (a self-declared but Unrecognized Sovereign State)
History
British Somaliland became independent on 26 June 1960 as the State of Somaliland and the Trust Territory of Somalia (the former Italian Somaliland) followed suit five days later. On July 1, 1960, the two territories united to form theSomali Republic, albeit within boundaries drawn up by Italy and Britain.
A Govt was formed by Abdullahi Issa and other members of the Trusteeship and ProtectorateGovts -
- Haji Bashir Ismail Yusuf - as President of the Somali National Assembly
- Aden Abdullah Osman Daar - as President of the Somali Republic and
- Abdirshid Ali Shermarke - as Prime Minister(later to become President from 1967–1969)
On July 20,1961 and through a Referendum, the people of Somalia ratified a new Constitution, which was first drafted in 1960
On 15 October 1969, Somalia's then President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke was shot dead by one of his own bodyguards and a military coup d'etat October 21, 1969 (the day after his funeral) seized power spearheaded by Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, who at the time commanded the army
Alongside Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC) that assumed power after President Sharmarke's assassination was led by Lieutenant Colonel Salaad Gaveyre Kediye and Chief of PoliceJama Korshel
Lieutenant Colonel Salaad Gaveyre Kediye officially held the title of "Father of the Revolution," and Mohamed Siad Barre shortly afterwards became the head of the SRC. The SRC subsequently renamed the country the Somali Democratic Republic, dissolved the parliament and the Supreme Court, and suspended the constitution
In July 1976, Mohamed Siad Barre's SRC disbanded itself and established in its place the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP), a one-party government based on scientific socialism and Islamic tenets
In July 1977, the Ogaden War broke out after Barre's government played the national unity card to justify an incorporation of the predominantly Somali-inhabited Ogaden Region of Ethiopia into a Pan-Somali Greater Somalia
By September 1977, Somalia controlled 90% of the Ogaden and captured strategic cities,however,a massive unprecedented Soviet intervention consisting of 20,000Cuban forces and several thousand Soviet experts came to the aid of Ethiopia's communist Derg regime and by 1978, the Somali troops were ultimately pushed out of the Ogaden
A new constitution was promulgated in 1979 under which elections for a People's Assembly were held. However, Barre's Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party politburo continued to rule
In October 1980, the SRSP was disbanded, and the SRC was re-established in its place.The government became increasingly totalitarian and resistance movements encouraged by Ethiopia, sprang up across the country, eventually leading to the Somali Civil War
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