Somalia

Main article: Africa

Map of the collapse of the state

• Somaliland

Population

Main article: Population of Africa

Migration

2021: Net population inflow in 4 years

Marriages

Allowed to have more than one spouse

Overweight

Mortality

Traffic safety

Education

2019

Percentage of people who can read

First graduation ceremony at Somali National University in three decades

In June 2019, Somali National University held its first graduation ceremony in three decades.

The university in Mogadishu was closed in the early 1990s after the outbreak of civil war and unrest. It was only opened in 2014. Then only 550 students applied to the university, and in 2018 their number increased to 5,070.

On June 24, 2019, more than 130 graduates received university diplomas.

Many students said that they had to hide student IDs so that members of the Al-Shabab group would not know about their status as students.

Economy

External debt

Cancellation of 99% of the debt of $2 billion to members of the Paris Club

Somalia secured the cancellation of 99% of the debt it owed to members of the Paris Club of creditor countries, the Paris Club reported on March 13, 2024, a milestone in the war-stricken country's efforts to reunite with the international financial system.

Countries, including, and Russia USA , Japan have written off more than $2 billion of Somalia's debt, the Paris Club, a French finance ministry body that acts as a secretariat for many creditor countries, said in a statement.

The Horn of Africa country was entitled to more than $4.5 billion in debt relief from all lenders after a debt relief initiative overseen by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank ended in December . Somalia has reached the "Completion Point" of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC), having been excluded from the international financial system for more than 30 years, marked by instability and civil war.

Somalia's external debt will shrink to less than 6% of gross domestic product by the end of 2023 from 64% at the end of 2018, the IMF and World Bank said in December.

2019: Debt to Russia - $418 million

According to World Bank statistics published in March 2021, Somalia's debt to Russia at the end of 2019 amounted to $418 million.

Grain import

Ban on the sale of alcohol

Somalia IT Market

2022: No start-up industry

Power

Electrification

Energy carriers

2020: Energy consumption per capita

and

Armed Forces

2023: Britain's military base

Apart from various PMCs controlled by British companies, military personnel Britain in May 2023 are located in 40 states. Africa The Government of the United Kingdom justifies its presence by training African personnel, peacekeeping missions (in and) Libya , South Sudan as well as the fight against terrorism, which has become especially relevant after the massive spread of IS activities since 2011 and throughout the Al-Qaeda continent.

2020: $138 million in military aid from the United States

Health care

2021: Maternity leave

in

2020

No guaranteed paid sick leave

Part of the population defecates on the street

Religion

2020: The country in the world leaders in the share of Muslims in the total population

Crime

Drugs

• Kat (Miraa)

Maritime piracy

2024: Resurgence of Somali piracy as ships re-route after Houthi attacks in Red Sea

Amid Houthi attacks on merchant vessels off the coast of Yemen, the main routes passing through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in early 2024 were forced to move closer to the shores of Somalia.

And warships that had previously provided security in the Indian Ocean moved north into the Red Sea. Thus, the protection of dry cargo ships was weakened and dispersed.

This sparked a new rise in Somali piracy. So from November 2023 to March 2024, more than 30 incidents related to the activities of pirates were noted in the Indian Ocean. They include small arms shelling and vessel seizures.

The main player in the fight against pirates is India. So on December 16, 2023, a ship under the flag of Malta was captured and anchored off the coast of the Horn of Africa. On March 14, 2024, the Indian fleet returned the ship and detained 35 pirates who carried out the attack, they will be tried in India.

The resonant case occurred on March 12, 2024. The Abdullah dry cargo ship, which was moving under the flag of Bangladesh, was attacked. All 23 crew members were taken hostage by pirates who occupied the ship entirely. The pirates then sailed the ship and anchored it in Somalia.

As of April 11, 2024, no ransom was provided, and pirates threatened to kill the crew if it was absent.

Small attacks also took place in early 2023. On January 29, pirates attacked a fishing vessel in the territorial waters of Seychelles. The Coast Guard responded quickly and after a small shootout, the attackers were detained.

It is also worth noting the use by pirates of captured ships as maternal in an attack. A similar trend was observed during their peak activity 10 years ago.

Prisons

2019: The minimum age for children to be jailed is 14

Terrorism

Main article: Al-Shabab

History

2024

Plan for transition from parliamentary to presidential form of government

In the spring of 2024, another round of political crisis began in Somalia, this time associated with constitutional reform and the gradual centralization of power.

On March 30, Somalia's parliament unanimously approved amendments to the 2012 constitution. According to them, the country is making a transition from a parliamentary form of government to a presidential one, introducing a five-year term of office for government bodies, introducing the electoral principle "one person - one vote." Also, the president is given the right to appoint and dismiss the prime minister without coordination with parliament.

For the official introduction of reforms, it remains to hold a public referendum.

Amendments aimed at centralizing and strengthening the power of the country's president were adopted, despite fears that such a decision would complicate relations with autonomies and "violate the existing system of independent branches of government"

Fears, however, were not in vain. The day after the adoption of the amendments, an emergency session of parliament was held in the Puntland Autonomous Region.

During the meeting, it announced the non-recognition of the voting results in Mogadishu and the severance of relations with the federal government. Until a compromise is found, the state will be governed by local structures.

Official reasons were called "undermining the federal system," "damage to the unity of the country" and "concentration of power in the hands of the executive branch."

The local government also urged the rest of the autonomies to follow suit.

Nevertheless, on April 1, after a meeting between Puntland President Said Abdullahi Denis and the UN Secretary General's Special Representative for Somalia, Katrion Laing, the former sharply reduced the degree of radicalism in his statements.

After the talks, Laing said Denis promised to continue dialogue with the federal government with a view to building consensus and delineating the powers of the authorities in Mogadishu and in the states.

Although Western countries do not need a strong state in the Horn of Africa, they still need a tool to counter Ethiopia's influence in the region, Rybar wrote. And with Somalia even more fragmented, this will be difficult to achieve.

Security forces eliminate militants who seized SYL hotel in central Mogadishu

On March 14, 2024, militants of the Al-Shabab al-Mujahideen terrorist group seized a SYL hotel in Mogadishu's business district and held it under siege for more than 13 hours.

According to local sources, the attack began with the explosion of a car filled with explosives located on the territory of the hotel.

This hotel is the most guarded in all of Somalia, and local sources do not exclude that the militants had accomplices among the security forces.

Nevertheless, the joint forces of the army and the police of the militants managed to eliminate.

2019

94 killed in a car explosion in Mogadishu

Somali MP Abdizirak Mohamed said a car bomb in Mogadishu killed 94 people.

"I was informed that the death toll exceeds 90, among them 17 Somali police officers, 73 civilians and four foreigners," Mohamed said.

UN: Somalia has worst locust infestation in 25 years

By December 2019, insects had devoured tens of thousands of hectares of crops and pasture land, threatening food supplies to cities and rural communities.

US opens embassy in Somalia after nearly 30 years

The representation was closed in 1991, when civil war broke out in the country.

The embassy USA in Somalia said in a statement that the opening of the representative office in October 2019 was an important milestone in strengthening relations between the two countries and will contribute to the stability and development of Somalia.

US air strike kills Somali farmers

According to an Amnesty International investigation, a March 2019 US airstrike in Somalia killed civilians, not militants, as claimed at the time by the US Africa Command (Africom). According to the organisation, the three men were returning from farms to their homes in Mogadishu, Ligo and Jaak Bariwein in Lower Shabelle.

The US has not investigated claims that the three victims were farmers and had no links to militants from the al-Shabab group.

This is not the first time the US military has been accused of killing civilians in Somalia.

1993: The battle in Mogadishu is a failure of the American operation

On October 3, 1993, the Battle of Mogadishu began. During the operation, the purpose of which was the arrest of two members of the "Government of the Somali National Alliance," American special forces entered into battle with the militants of the alliance led by General Mohammed Aydid.

In two days, the Americans lost two MH-60 helicopters, 18 American soldiers were killed and another 80 were wounded. The armies of Malaysia and Pakistan, as part of the UN armed forces, which took part in the operation to save the American detachment, also suffered losses - one killed and several wounded.

On the side of Somalia, the losses were much more significant, both among militants and among civilians. But despite the fact that several hundred Somalis died in the battle in Mogadishu, Muhammad Aidid declared his unconditional victory.

A few months later USA , they withdrew their troops from Somalia. Following them, the UN forces left. The "Battle of Mogadishu" is considered one of the most unsuccessful peacekeeping operations.

1988: Civil War begins

In 1988, a civil war broke out in Somalia. The multilateral armed conflict began with the struggle against the regime of Mohamed Siad Barre and led to the collapse of the state and inter-clan war.

1914

Sport

2022: The most popular sport is football

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Calendar

Dwarf falcon

The African pygmy falcon is Africa's smallest bird of prey.

In length it reaches only 19-24 cm and feeds on rodents. It is found in East African countries, in particular Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan.