Somalia

Somalia is a Muslim country that is a combination of two former European colonies known as British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland. Somalia has been Muslim since A.D. 900 and today is considered one of the bases for the terrorist group al-Qaeda. Roughly the size of New Jersey in area and population, Somalia is located in the Horn of Africa, its coastline on the Indian Ocean) bordering Djibouti (the former French Somaliland), Ethiopia and Kenya. The capital city is Mogadishu.

Somalia obtained its independence in 1960. The violence is such in Somalia today that it has no central government at all. In 1993, 18 American soldiers were killed there, and on Jan. 9, 2007 the United States, in support of Ethiopian troops which had entered the country to prop up a secular government against the so-called 'Islamic Courts Movement', bombed parts of the country where al-Qaeda terrorists were believed to be hiding.

The former colonial area of British Somaliland in the north of the country has declared de facto independence from the rest of Somalia and is known as Somaliland. It is relatively orderly and well-governed.