Country Information

The population of Somalia is estimated at 8.7 million. Somalia's population consists of the majority Somali (85%) and with the remaining 15% divided among minority ethnic groups, such as Bantu, Arab, and Italian descendents. Most of the population is Sunni Muslim. The official language is Somali with Arabic, Italian, and English also spoken.

Political and Economic Environment
Since the collapse of the Barre regime in 1991, Somalia has been mired in factional warfare and widespread insecurity. Somalia is devoid of any effective central government and public services. Trans-National Government (TNG) based in Mogadishu failed to assert control beyond the capital. Factions in the northwestern Somaliland region and the northern Puntland region declared their independence in 1991 and 1998.

Though the twenty-one warring factions and the TNG signed a ceasefire agreement in October 2002, severe fighting has continued in Mogadishu and other regions as all groups continued to violate the ceasefire agreement. The international response continued to be condemning. To limit the level of armed conflict, the UN imposed arms embargo on Somalia. However, the embargo has been consistently breached.

Somali Transitional Federal Government came from its exile in Nairobi to Somalia in June 2005. New Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed’s government consists of a 275-member parliament. However, while the new government has already been embroiled in internal power struggles, the tasks it is facing are seemingly endless. Challenges rise with localized clan conflicts that continue to cause displacements. The health and education systems have been destroyed. The food situation in the north has stabilized somewhat, however malnutrition rates in the southern and central regions remains alarming, as a new drought threatens to create yet another humanitarian crisis. The conflict situation showed improvement in January 2006 with the signing of the Aden declaration in Yemen, uniting rival factions of the transitional government. In cooperation with Ethiopian forces, the transitional government forces dislodged those of the Union of Islamic Courts, so that by the end of 2007, many areas were lacking any sort of political power structure. Recently there have been calls by the Arab League and the AU for Ethiopian troops to leave Somalia as their presence is interpreted by many Somali's as a foreign invasion. The UN authorized a six-month peacekeeping mission in February of 2007 that included troops from both the UN and the AU, and has been re-authorized twice. However, the mandate for this mission is limited in scope and is impractical due to the lack of political stability within Somalia.

Ongoing civil disturbances and fragmentation of authority has not only destroyed the economic infrastructure, but has also interfered with development programs and international aid arrangements. Agriculture accounts for about 40% of the GDP and about 65% of export earnings. Since Somalia has few resources and is prone to drought, Somalia primarily exports livestock and imports crops. Though Somalia’s service sector survived and grew during the civil war, drought, volatile markets, and an import ban on Somali livestock affected the majority of the nomadic or semi-nomadic population. Following the September 11th attacks, the United States government froze the funds of Somalia's main remittance bank, al Barakaat, because of its suspected links to al-Qaeda. In the last year, the US has begun to launch missile attacks against alleged al-Qaeda sites within Somalia.

Humanitarian Situation
Somalia is the fourth largest source of refugees and fifth largest source of internally displaced persons in the world. An estimated 400,000 people are displaced in Somalia, while refugees number 600,000. Violence and displacement have resulted in over 2.5 million deaths since 1991. A large majority of Somalis live in poverty. The internally displaced experience additional hardships, in particular those who belong to ethnic minorities or minority clans and do not benefit from protection by a dominant clan or local authorities. As a result, many have even less access to water and food, economic opportunities, health care and education than the local population. Displaced women and children are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and violence.

An estimated 68,000 Somali refugees have fled to neighboring Yemen. Thousands of people cross the Aden Gulf every year, many of them on unsafe vessels run by smuggling rings. Hundreds perish in the attempt to reach Yemen’s shore. A portion of the Somali refugees living throughout the region have been repatriated by UNHCR. Of the 115,000 Somali refugees residing in Ethiopia, 129,000 in Kenya, 24,000 in Djibouti, and many more in neighboring Burundi and Tanzania, some 19,400 Somali refugees have returned voluntarily. Most of which have settled in Somaliland and Puntland with the help of UNHCR repatriation convoys.

A majority of the population relies on international agencies to provide food, basic health, education and water services. Yet, lack of security continues to hamper international efforts to provide food aid and health services. An estimated 2.1 million Somalis, mostly in southern Somali and in Somaliland in the northeast, are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Further exacerbating the problem of food insecurity, in early 2008 the region is suffering under a drought, straining already taxed food programs.

Somali children are often smuggled into Europe and North America in hopes of a better future. Somalia is one of the largest producers of such “separated children.” These children are most likely exploited for benefit fraud in welfare states, domestic labor, and prostitution. Approximately 12,000 Somali Bantu refugees have come to the United States since 2000 when they were given priority for resettlement. Many of them had been refugees in Kenya before entering the United States.

Updated March 2008