NamePopulation Mogadishu2,587,183 Hargeysa477,876 Berbera242,344 Kismayo234,852 Merca230,100 Jamaame185,270 Baidoa129,839 Burco99,270 Bosaso74,287 Afgooye65,461

 Total Area: 637,657 square kilometers  Total Land Area: 627,337 square kilometers  Total Water Area: 10,320 square kilometers  A little smaller than Texas  Climate: mostly desert with a tropical climate  Lowest Point: Indian Ocean- 0 meters  Highest Point: Shimbiris- 2,416 meters  Longest River: Shebelle River- 702 meters

 1839: Great Britain Occupies Aden and uses Somalia as a food source  1862: France establishes a coalmining station on the coast that would later be called Djibouti  Italy sets up a protectorate in central Somalia  1936-Italian Somaliland combined Somali-speaking parts of Ethiopia to form a province of Italian East Africa  Italian Somaliland becomes a UN trust territory under Italian control and is later renamed Somalia in 1956  British and Italian controlled parts of Somalia become independent and merge to form the United Republic of Somalia and elect Aden Abdullah Osman Daar as president

 1991:Clan warlords Mohamed Farah Aideed and Ali Mahdi Mohamed throw Mohamed Siad Barre from power. The result is a deadly civil war between the two clans for power  1992: The worst drought of the century occurs in Africa, the famine caused by this along with the civil war caused 300,000 Somalian deaths. U.S. Marines arrive in Mogadishu ahead of UN peacekeeping forces to restore order safeguard relief supplies  1993: Somalian militia shoot down 2 American Helicopters, “Blackhawk down” battle occurs. 18 Americans died with 73 wounded and it is estimated about 500 Somalis died and thousands were wounded in the battle. America withdraws soon after  1995: UN peacekeepers leave after failing to restore order

 2000-Somalia’s first government in a decade is elected, but they only controlled about 10% of the country  The government mandate expired and it took about 1 year to elect a new 275 member parliament was elected for five years. They choose Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as president. The government operated out of Kenya because Somalia was still too violent

 Official language: Somali Language  Qat (AKA: Khat, chat, kat)- derived from leaves from the catha edulis tree, it is supposed sharpen thoughts and is commonly used in Somalia  Islam is the predominant religion and most Somalian are fairly devote and culture norms are heavily influenced by Islam traditions (no pork or Alcohol  Clans are very important social groups that have heavy culture and political influences that are basically extended families  Football (Soccer) is the national sport  Somali food is basically combination of Somali, Ethiopian, Yemeni, Persian, Turkish, Indian and Italian cuisines  Agriculture is the most important part of the Somali economy as it employees 65% of the workforce

 Capital: Mogadishu  Type: Federal Parliamentary Republic  Executive branch: President is elected by the Parliament and serves as head of state and chooses Prime Minster and serves as head of government.  Legislative branch: Parliament consists of a 275- seat lower house and a 54 seat upper house  Current government was established on August 20, 2012  President: Hassan Sheikh Mohamud  Prime Minister: Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed

 Mo Farah- won 10,000 meter and 5,000 meter races at London Olympics  Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat Ali: Somali-American actors that played Somali pirates in “Captain Phillips  Kanaan- native Somalian, Canadian rapper best known for touring with Damian Marley

Good  Somali Institute for Management and Administration- started in 1999 with under 100 students, it has grown to almost 2,500 students and is officially a “University”  Somalia to go along with fairly established agriculture, Somalia has pretty good fruit and coffee production  IF it hasn’t been bombed there is some nice architecture left over from colonial times Bad  Young government with a history of having a hard time being established  VIOLENCE- clan ties and warlords are still prevalent  Piracy- it generate $200 million of income annually!