Somalia

B

Health and Welfare

Hospital and clinic services in Somalia are free, but resources were severely strained in the late 1980s by the presence of up to 600,000 refugees from the Ogadēn region of Ethiopia and in the early 1990s by Somalia’s civil war. The average life expectancy is about 47 years for men and 51 years for women; the infant mortality rate is 113 deaths per 1,000 live births, which is one of the world’s highest. In 1986 there were 13,300 people per doctor, but since the civil war the state health system has all but collapsed. Very basic care has since been provided by foreign aid workers.

C

Defence

Until the early 1990s military service of 18 months was compulsory for men between the ages of 18 and 40. In the late 1980s the army had a force of some 61,300; the navy, 1,200; and the air force, 2,500. Since the overthrow of Muhammad Siad Barre in January 1991, there have been no national armed forces. Clan militias are engaged in fighting for political control.

D

International Organizations

Somalia is a member of the United Nations (UN), the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), and the African Union.

VI

History

The history of the region now included in Somalia dates from antiquity, when the land was known to the ancient Egyptians as Punt. From the 2nd to the 7th century ad parts of the area belonged to the Ethiopian kingdom of Āksum. Arab tribes in the 7th century settled along the coast of the Gulf of Aden and established the sultanate of Adel, which centred on the port of Zeila. The Somali people began to migrate into this region from Yemen in the 13th century. The sultanate disintegrated during the 16th century into small independent states, many of which were ruled by Somali chiefs. Zeila became a dependency of Yemen, and was then captured by the Ottoman Empire.

A

European Colonization

The first European power in the region was Britain, which took possession of Aden (now in the Republic of Yemen) on the Arabian coast in 1839, in order to protect British trade routes and provide safe anchorage for ships. In the mid-1870s Egypt, disregarding Turkish claims, occupied some of the towns on the Somali coast and part of the adjacent interior. When Egyptian troops left the area in 1882 to help stem the revolt of Muhammad Ahmad, known as the Mahdi, in the Sudan, Britain occupied the territory in order to safeguard the route to India through the Suez Canal, which had been opened in 1869. In 1887 a British protectorate, known as British Somaliland, was proclaimed. The protectorate, initially a dependency of Aden, was placed under the administration of the British Foreign Office in 1898 and of the Colonial Office in 1905.

Italian interest in the Somali coast developed in the late 19th century. Through treaties with local Somali sultans, and conventions with Britain, Ethiopia, and Zanzibar, Italy acquired a foothold along the Indian Ocean coast. British control of the interior of the protectorate was challenged by revolts between 1899 and 1910. In 1910 the British abandoned the interior and withdrew to the coastal regions, finally subduing the rebels only in 1920.

During this period Italy extended its control inland under the Treaty of London in 1915 and various agreements following World War I. In 1936 Italy merged its territories in Somaliland, Eritrea, and the newly conquered Ethiopia into the colonial state of Italian East Africa. After Italy entered World War II on the side of Germany in 1940, Italian troops invaded British Somaliland and succeeded in expelling the British, who reconquered the protectorate in 1941.

Under the Italian peace treaty adopted in 1947, Italy was forced to renounce its possessions in Africa. Responsibility for disposition of these colonies was allocated to the so-called Big Four (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the USSR). In 1948 the Big Four, having failed to reach agreement, referred the matter to the General Assembly of the UN. A plan granting independence to Italian Somaliland, after ten years as a UN trust territory under Italian administration, was approved by the General Assembly in November 1949. On April 1, 1950, after Italy had accepted the terms of a UN trusteeship agreement, the British military government was replaced by a provisional Italian administration. The territory was named Somalia.