National name: Soomaaliya

President: Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed (2004)

Prime Minister: Ali Muhammad Ghedi (2004)

Land area: 242,216 sq mi (627,339 sq km); total area: 246,201 sq mi (637,657 sq km)

Population (2006 est.): 8,863,338 (growth rate: 2.9%); birth rate: 45.1/1000; infant mortality rate: 114.9/1000; life expectancy: 48.5; density per sq mi: 37

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Mogadishu, 1,208,800

Monetary unit: Somali shilling

Languages: Somali (official), Arabic, English, Italian

Ethnicity/race: Somali 85%, Bantu and others 15% (including Arabs 30,000)

Religion: Islam (Sunni)

Literacy rate: 38% (2001 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $4.835 billion; per capita $600. Real growth rate: 2.4%. Inflation: n.a. (businesses print their own money). Unemployment: n.a. Arable land: 2%. Agriculture: bananas, sorghum, corn, coconuts, rice, sugarcane, mangoes, sesame seeds, beans; cattle, sheep, goats; fish. Labor force: 3.7 million (very few are skilled laborers); agriculture (mostly pastoral nomadism) 71%, industry and services 29%. Industries: a few light industries, including sugar refining, textiles, wireless communication. Natural resources: uranium and largely unexploited reserves of iron ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt, natural gas, likely oil reserves. Exports: $241 million f.o.b. (2004 est.): livestock, bananas, hides, fish, charcoal, scrap metal. Imports: $576 million f.o.b. (2004 est.): manufactures, petroleum products, foodstuffs, construction materials, qat. Major trading partners: UAE, Yemen, Oman, Djibouti, Kenya, India, Brazil (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 15,000 (2000); mobile cellular: n.a. Radio broadcast stations: AM 0, FM 1, shortwave 5 (2001). Radios: 470,000 (1997). Television broadcast stations: 3; note: two in Mogadishu; one in Hargeisa (2001). Televisions: 135,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 3 (one each in Boosaaso, Hargeisa, and Mogadishu) (2000). Internet users: 200 (2000).

Transportation: Railways: 0 km. Highways: total: 22,100 km; paved: 2,608 km; unpaved: 19,492 km (1999 est.). Ports and harbors: Boosaaso, Berbera, Chisimayu (Kismaayo), Merca, Mogadishu. Airports: 60 (2002).

International disputes: “Somaliland” secessionists provide port facilities to land-locked Ethiopia and establish commercial ties with regional states; “Puntland” secessionists clash with “Somaliland” secessionists to establish territorial limits and clan loyalties, each seeking support from neighboring states; Ethiopia maintains only an administrative line with the Oromo region of southern Somalia and maintains alliances with local Somali clans opposed to the unrecognized Transitional National Government in Mogadishu.


 

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