Somalia Education

Education
Until war broke out in the early 1990s, education was free and compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 14. The literacy rate increased from about 5 percent in the early 1970s to 60 percent in the mid-1980s following an intensive government-sponsored literacy campaign. In the mid-1980s elementary schools had an annual enrollment of about 274,600 pupils, general secondary schools had 65,200 students, and vocational and teacher-training institutions had an enrollment of 10,200. As a result of Somalia's civil war, the educational system has collapsed and most schools have been closed, including the Somali National University (1954-1991) in Mogadishu, which previously had an enrollment of about 4600.

Somalia or Somali Democratic Republic, republic in eastern Africa, bounded on the north by the Gulf of Aden, on the east and south by the Indian Ocean, on the southwest by Kenya, on the west by Ethiopia, and on the northwest by Djibouti. The total area is 637,657 sq km (246,201 sq mi).

Land and Resources
Somalia has a long coastline, extending for about 2735 km (about 1700 mi), but it has few natural harbors. A sandy coastal plain borders on the Gulf of Aden in the north. A series of mountain ranges, with average elevations between about 915 and 2135 m (about 3000 and 7000 ft), dominates the northern part of the country. To the south, the interior consists of a rugged plateau, ranging in elevation from about 500 m (1640 ft) in the north to less than 183 m (600 ft) in the south. In the south, a wide coastal plain, which has many sand dunes, borders on the Indian Ocean. The country's two major rivers are found on the southern plateau, the Juba in the southern part and the Webi Shabelle in the south central section.

Climate
The climate of Somalia ranges from tropical to subtropical and from arid to semiarid. Temperatures usually average 27.8° C (82° F), but may be as low as 0° C (32° F) in the mountain areas and as high as 46.7° C (116° F) along the coast. The monsoon winds bring a dry season from September to December and a rainy season from March to May. The average annual rainfall is only about 279 mm (about 11 in).

Vegetation and Animal Life
Vegetation in Somalia consists chiefly of coarse grass and stunted thorn and acacia trees. Aromatic flora, producing frankincense and myrrh, are indigenous to the mountain slopes. In southern Somalia, eucalyptus, euphorbia, and mahogany trees are found. Wildlife is abundant and includes the crocodile, elephant, giraffe, leopard, lion, zebra, and many poisonous snakes.

Natural Resources
Somalia has few natural resources. The grasslands are suitable for grazing livestock, and the fertile land in the river valleys of the Juba and Webi Shabelle and in some coastal areas is used for agricultural crops. Mineral resources are relatively diverse but have not been exploited. Known deposits include petroleum, copper, manganese, gypsum, iron, marble, meerschaum (a fine clay used to make pipes for smoking), tin, and uranium.

Population
The vast majority of the population consists of Somali, a Cushitic people. A small minority of Bantu-speaking people live in the southern part of the country. Other minority groups include Arabs, Indians, Italians, and Pakistanis. The majority of the people are nomadic or seminomadic pastoralists. The remainder are either crop farmers or inhabitants of the few urban centers.

Population Characteristics
The population of Somalia (1993 estimate) was 6,514,629. The overall population density was 10 people per sq km (26 per sq mi). The principal cities are Mogadishu, the capital, with a population (1985 estimate) of 700,000, and Hargeysa (1980 estimate, 70,000).

Religion and Language
Islam is the state religion in Somalia, and most of the people are Sunni Muslims. The official languages are Somali and Arabic; English and Italian are also used.


Economy
The economy of Somalia has been based primarily on livestock raising. Crop farming is of importance only in the south. Until the early 1990s, efforts to diversify and modernize the economy had been directed by the government through a series of development plans, extensively assisted by foreign grants and loans. In the late 1980s the gross national product was estimated at only $290 per capita. In the early 1990s, Somalia's economy was in a state of collapse because of civil war.

Agriculture
The principal occupation in Somalia has been the raising of livestock. In the late 1980s the number of livestock animals was estimated at about 20 million goats, 13.5 million sheep, 5 million cattle, and 6.7 million camels. The principal crops were sugarcane (450,000 metric tons annually), sorghum (220,000), corn (260,000), bananas (120,000), and sesame seed (50,000).

Forestry and Fishing
The major forestry products of Somalia were frankincense and myrrh, which were exported; the annual timber harvest has been about 4.6 million cu m (about 162 million cu ft). Fishing has provided for local consumption and exports. In the late 1980s about 17,000 metric tons of fish were caught annually.

Manufacturing
At the onset of civil war, manufacturing in Somalia was in the early stages of development. A cement factory, a cotton gin, a meat and fish cannery, and a textile plant had been established. Other industries included oilseed and fruit processing plants, leather and shoe factories, and petroleum and sugar refineries.

Currency and Banking
The unit of currency is the Somali shilling, consisting of 100 centesimi (2615.58 shillings equal U.S.$1; 1993), issued by the Central Bank of Somalia (1960). Somalia is a member of the Islamic Development Bank and the African Development Bank.

Foreign Trade
In the late 1980s Somalia's exports totaled about $60 million annually, and imports about $247.8 million annually. The chief exports were livestock and bananas. Other exports included meat, fish, leather and hides, and wood. The principal imports are foodstuffs, chemicals, machinery, textiles, and petroleum. Major trading partners are Italy, Ethiopia, Great Britain, Germany, Kenya, the United States, and China.

Transportation and Communications
Somalia has no railroads; of about 17,200 km (about 10,700 mi) of roads, about 15 percent are paved. Mogadishu was the leading port. A government-owned airline and several foreign airlines provided international service. Until the early 1990s two government-owned radio stations broadcast in Arabic, English, Italian, Somali, and several other languages, but the collapse of Somalia's infrastructure because of the civil war has caused much of the country's telecommunications to be disrupted.

Government
The ouster of President Muhammad Siad Barre in January 1991 left Somalia in a state of civil war, with no clear central governmental authority.

Executive
Under the 1979 constitution, as subsequently amended, executive power is held by a president, who is head of state and leader of the country's sole legal political party, the Somali Revolutionary Socialist party. He is nominated by the party's Central Committee, is elected to a seven-year term by direct universal vote, and serves as commander in chief of the armed forces.

Legislature
Legislative power is vested in the 177-member People's Assembly. The president appoints 6 members, and the other 171 are popularly elected; all serve 5-year terms.

Judiciary
The highest civilian courts in Somalia are the supreme court, two courts of appeal, and eight regional courts. The 84 district courts have civil and criminal sections.

Local Government
For purposes of local administration Somalia is divided into 18 regions and 84 districts.

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 Ogaden region of Ethiopia and in the early 1990s by Somalia's civil war. The average life expectancy was 53 years; the infant mortality rate was 128 per 1000 live births.

Defense
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, 1200; and the air force, 2500. Since the overthrow of Muhammad Siad Barre in January 1990, there have been no national armed forces.

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 Aksum. Arab tribes in the 7th century settled along the coast of the Gulf of Aden and established the sultanate of Adel, which centered on the port of Zeila. The Somali people began slowly 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.

European Colonization
The first European power in the region was Great Britain. In order to protect British trade routes and provide safe anchorage for ships, Great Britain took possession of Aden (now in the Republic of Yemen) on the Arabian coast in 1839. Subsequently, about 1875, Egypt, disregarding Turkish claims, occupied some of the towns on the Somali coast and part of the adjacent interior. When the Egyptian troops left the area in 1882 to help stem the revolt of the Mahdi in the Sudan, Great 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. By the terms of the treaties with native Somali sultans, and conventions with Great Britain, Ethiopia, and Zanzibar, Italy acquired a foothold along the Indian Ocean coast.
British control of the interior of the protectorate was challenged by native revolts between 1899 and 1910. In 1910 the British abandoned the interior and withdrew to the coastal regions. They finally subdued the rebels in 1920. During this period Italy extended control over the area inland from the Indian Ocean coast by the Treaty of London in 1915 and by various postwar agreements. In 1936 Italy merged Italian Somaliland, Eritrea, and the newly conquered Ethiopia into the colonial state of Italian East Africa. After the Italian entrance into World War II (1939-1945) on the side of Germany in 1940, Italian troops invaded British Somaliland and succeeded in expelling the British. Great Britain reconquered its protectorate in 1941.
By the terms of the Italian peace treaty adopted in 1947, Italy was forced to renounce title to the possessions in Africa, and responsibility for disposition of these colonies was allocated to the so-called Big Four (the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR). In 1948 the Big Four, having failed to reach an agreement on disposition, referred the matter to the General Assembly of the United Nations (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.

Independence
On July 1, 1960, by agreement with the UN Trusteeship Council, Somalia was granted independence. It merged thereupon with the former British protectorate, to which Great Britain, by prearrangement, had given independence on June 26. The first president, Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, elected in 1960, was defeated for reelection in 1967 by the former premier Abdi Rashid Ali Shirmarke. On October 15, 1969, Shirmarke was assassinated, and days later a military group, led by Major General Muhammad Siad Barre, seized power. In 1970 Barre declared Somalia a socialist state, and in the following years most of the modern economy of the country was nationalized. A drought in 1974 and 1975 caused widespread starvation.
In mid-1977 ethnic Somalis in the adjacent Ogaden region of Ethiopia initiated open warfare aimed at ending Ethiopian control of the area. The rebels were armed by Somalia, which also contributed troops to the effort. The Somalis captured most of the Ogaden by late 1977, but Ethiopia, aided by Cuba and the USSR, reasserted control over the region in early 1978, as Somalia's army suffered heavy losses. Subsequent fighting in the Ogaden precipitated a flood of refugees into Somalia; the number of homeless in 1981 was estimated at close to 2 million. The United States gave both humanitarian and military aid and was in return granted use of the naval facilities at Berbera, previously a Soviet base.
Hostilities with Ethiopia and with Ethiopian-backed Somali rebels continued sporadically until 1988, when a peace accord was signed. The civil war intensified, however, and Barre was forced to flee the capital in January 1991. During the next 23 months about 50,000 people were killed in factional fighting, and an estimated 300,000 died of starvation as it became impossible to distribute food in the war-ravaged nation. On December 9, 1992, a contingent of United States Marines landed near Mogadishu, the vanguard of a UN peacekeeping force sent to restore order. International agencies soon resumed food distribution and other humanitarian aid, interrupted in 1993 by sporadic outbreaks of violence, including the ambush murder of 23 UN soldiers from Pakistan. United States troops were withdrawn in March 1994.