Somalia: Country Profile
At 246,200 square miles, Somalia is just under the size of Texas. A land of desert and heat—hilly in the north and flat in the south—it sits on the eastern edge of the Horn of Africa, its 1,700-mile coastline jutting into the Gulf of Aden and down along the Indian Ocean.
An estimated eight million people live in Somalia, where civil strife has hobbled the country since 1991 when the central government collapsed following the ouster of President Mohamed Siad Barre. For many Somalis, drought, floods, and conflict frame their daily existence as herders and farmers.
Close to 60 percent of the country’s residents raise livestock for a living, often as nomadic herders following their cows, camels, sheep, and goats. About a quarter of the population farms, and some of them have settled between the Juba and Shebelle Rivers in southern Somalia where flooding late in 2006 forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
Living in Somalia can be hard. The average life expectancy is 47 years old. Only 29 percent of the people have sustainable access to an improved water source. And many people can’t read. More than 70 percent of the women are illiterate, as are about 50 percent of the men.
Traveling throughout the country can also be a challenge. There is no railway system and Somalia’s network of roads—about 14,000 miles worth—is falling into disrepair. Only 1,600 of those miles are good in all weather.
Somali is the official language, though people also speak Arabic, Italian, and English.