Appeal from Rudd as world ignores Somalia disaster

• Hamish MacDonald in Dolo, Somalia 
• From:The Australian 
• July 26, 2011 12:00AM

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AUSTRALIA has become one of the top global donors to the famine in southern Somalia after Canberra announced an additional contribution of $20 million.

This, combined with another $20m of Australian aid funding reallocated by the World Food Program, takes the total contribution to $80m, second only to that of Britain.

The World Bank last night pledged more than $US500m ($462m) to aid the drought-stricken Horn of Africa region, as UN aid chiefs met in Rome to discuss ramping up relief efforts.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd visited the Somali town of Dolo to meet some of those seeking refuge and announce the additional funding.

"This will be five times as bad come the end of the year if we don't act now," he said.

The Australian position on funding sits in stark contrast to that of the US and many European nations, which have been reluctant to donate, fearing the aid will fall into the hands of the Islamist group al-Shabaab, which controls most of the drought-affected region in southern Somalia.

Al-Shabaab has previously refused to allow international aid agencies to deliver food and medicine but those restrictions appear to be easing.

Agencies including Medecins Sans Frontieres and the World Food Program are conducting limited operations in Somalia but are working in extremely insecure conditions.

The UN says it is still $350m short of what it needs to deal with the famine.

"As for the the US, the European Union and with all governments, I think it's important for everyone to step up to the plate," Mr Rudd said. "Six months' time will be too late."

Eleven million people are affected by drought in a crisis area about the size of NSW. Three million people are facing an acute food shortage.

World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran said: "We have a triple crisis of this epic drought, conflict and then high food prices. In Somalia, food prices have soared over 240 per cent year after year.

"We need to scale up in areas like Dolo, which haven't been reached," she said.

The town of Dolo, close to the Ethiopian border, was said to be under the control of al-Shabaab only months ago, but now women and children are walking across the vast Somali desert for days and sometimes weeks to get here.

Hamish McDonald is a Ten Network correspondent in Somalia reporting for 6.30 with George Negus

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/appeal-from-rudd-as-world-ignores-somalia-disaster/story-fn59niix-1226101616710

Somalia famine: Minister warns of starvation in rebel controlled areas

Somalia's deputy prime minister tells FAO meeting that people in areas controlled by Al-Shabaab may starve to death if aid does not reach them in the next few weeks

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• Mark Tran and Liz Ford
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 25 July 2011 11.34 BST
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Two children who have fled from the famine in Somalia look out from their tent in the Dagahaley refugee camp in Kenya. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

The vast majority of people in insurgent-controlled areas of Somalia may starve to death unless aid reaches them in the next few weeks, said Mohamed Ibrahim, Somalia's deputy prime minister.

Ibrahim's blunt warning came at an emergency summit in Rome organised by France, the current president of the G20, and the Foodand Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as the world community seeks to mobilise help to relieve Somalia's first famine in 18 years.

Somalia's deputy prime minister said the fundamental cause of the famine was the fragility of the state and enduring conflict that has hindered the provision of basic services. He also blamed insurgents who have blocked lifesaving aid.

"The plight of the Somali people is desperate," said Ibrahim. "We have witnessed suffering in the heart of the capital."

Access to affected regions has emerged as a key problem in the current crisis. Last week, the UN declared a famine in two regions of Somalia southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle. Somali Islamist rebels, who control these areas, last week denied lifting a ban on certain aid groups indrought-affected areas and rejected the UN's claim that there is a famine in the region.

Earlier this month, the rebel group al-Shabaab, which controls much of southern Somalia, had said earlier this month that it would allow all humanitarian groups access to assist with the drought response. But al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage told a local radio station on Friday that the ban on specific aid agencies, which was imposed in 2009 and 2010, still stands.

At the time, the rebels accused various humanitarian groups, including the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), which is expected to lead the current drought response, of damaging the local economy, being anti-Muslim, and of spying for the government.

An estimated 11.6 million people need humanitarian assistance in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti, according to the UN.

As G20 leaders met in Rome, Save the Children warned that the number of malnourished children in 14 of its feeding centres in camps in Puntland, northern Somalia, has doubled from 3,500 to 6,000 in just two weeks.

The number of acutely malnourished children – and those who will die without emergency assistance – has also doubled, rising from 300 children to 600 in the last two weeks at the charity's clinics in Puntland.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said its feeding centres were operating beyond their original capacity and, compared to last year, they were receiving up to seven times more patients in certain locations each week. MSF said "spontaneous camps" are emerging in various locations, such as in the Lower Juba Valley.

Save the Children said if world leaders at the emergency meeting fail to plug a $1bn (£613m) funding gap for the east Africa aid effort, more than a million children could die in Somalia alone.

Save the Children pointed out that, despite organising the meeting, the French government has donated just £1.6m to the aid effort, lagging far behind the UK government's recent £52m donation. Italy – the host of today's summit and Europe's fourth largest economy – has contributed only £550,000. Norway told the FAO meeting that it was ready to contribute more money to the relief effort, while the EU has increased its funding to euros 100m. It hopes to increase this further to euros 160m.

Funding commitments

In a pointed intervention, Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the UN on the millennium development goals, said the world needed to turn to the Gulf states if it was serious about raising money quickly.

"We have to look to the Gulf states," he said. "It is the only place where the money really is. This is a room of governments without money."

In a later press conference, Kanayo Nwanze, the head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, a UN special agency, chastised the lack of political leadership in Africa in supporting agriculture.

"If Africa does not get its house in order and expects the world to help us out, we are dreaming," said Nwanze. "Thank goodness Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana are moving ahead with agriculture."

He criticised African governments for not keeping their 2003 promise to earmark 10% of their budgets for agriculture.

"Less than 10 countries have fulfilled that pledge," he said.

The World Bank promised to provide more than $500m to help drought victims. The money would be spent on projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and Somalia, including the worst-stricken areas in that country "where circumstances permit", the bank said.

"The recurring nature of drought and growing risk it poses to social and economic gains in this region calls not only for immediate relief from the current situation, but also for building longterm drought resilience," said Obiageli Ezekwesili, World Bank vice-president for Africa.

Opening the meeting, the FAO's director general, Jacques Diouf, said there was a need for greater co-ordination in response to the drought and famine in east Africa to "save our brothers and sisters of dying of thirst and hunger".

He said the world was faced with a similar crisis in the region in 2000, which prompted the then secretary general of the UN, Kofi Annan, to appoint an inter-agency taskforce to investigate what could be done to make the region more food secure.

The resulting report, The elimination of food insecurity in the Horn of Africa: A strategy for concerted government and UN agency action, recommended each of the seven countries in the area draft food security programmes, the implementation of regional food security programmes, expanding markets and trade opportunities, and improving in-country health and nutrition.

The report said large-scale infrastructure was needed alongside investment in small-scale projects, particularly in rural roads, livestock markets and basic services, "ensuring that these developments are community-driven".

Diouf drew parallels with the recommendations made in the report by the taskforce, which he led, and the situation now. He pointed out that irrigation was an important component in addressing the crisis. Just 1% of land in the effected region was irrigated in 2000, he said.

Little appears to have been done to increase this figure. An estimated 2% of land in eastern and southern Africa is believed to now have an irrigation system in place; only about 7% of land in the whole of Africa is irrigated, compared with more than 30% of land in Asia.

Diouf said the 2000 crisis was averted and international attention drifted to other issues. "Must history always repeat itself?" he asked. "And in the first few years of the 21st century, must the international community go through the agonising spectacle of seeing children and livestock dying, as in ancient Egyptian times?

"My hope is that the international community and the G20 in the next few years will marshal enormous resources so in the future such tragic events are nothing more than a bad memory ... that fields will be irrigated and roads will be built so the region will no longer weigh on our collective conscience."

The executive director of the World Food Programme, Josette Sheeran, said the current crisis stemmed from a "triple storm" of drought, soaring food prices and conflict.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

2011 Horn of Africa famine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article documents a current disaster. Information regarding it may change rapidly as it progresses. Although this article is updated frequently, it may not reflect the most current information about this disaster for all areas.

2011 Horn of Africa famine
The FEWS Net projection for crisis levels in Eastern Africa from July to September, based on current levels of response.
Country	Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and neighboring countries[1]
Location	Catastrophe-level in southern Somalia; emergency-level and crisis-level across the entire Horn of Africa region[1]
Period	July 2011 –
Total deaths	More than 10,000[2]
Death rate	Up to 7.4 out of 10,000 per day[3]
Theory	Severe drought; violent conflicts

The 2011 Horn of Africa famine is a famine^[2] occurring in several regions in theHorn of Africa as a result of a severe drought that is affecting the entire Eastern Africaregion.^[4] The drought, said to be "the worst in 60 years",^[5] has caused a severe food crisis across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya that threatens the livelihood of more than 12 million people.^[6] Other countries in and around the Horn of Africa, includingDjibouti, Sudan, South Sudan and parts of Uganda, are also affected by a food crisis.^[7][8][5][9]

On 20 July, the United Nations officially declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia, the first time a famine has been declared by the UN in nearly thirty years.^[2][10] Tens of thousands of people are believed to have already died in southern Somalia before the famine was declared.^[2] A severe lack of funding for international aid, together with security issues in the region, have hindered humanitarian responses to the crisis.^[2][11][12]

Contents  [hide] 1 Background 2 Humanitarian situation 2.1 Security 3 International response 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit]Background

Carcasses of sheep and goats amidst a severe drought in Waridaad in the Somaliland region.

Weather conditions over the Pacific, including an unusually strong La Niña, have interrupted seasonal rains for two consecutive seasons. The rains failed this year in Kenya and Ethiopia, and for the last two years in Somalia.^[4] In many areas, the precipitation rate during the main rainy season from late March to early June was less than 30% of the average of 1995–2010.^[13] The lack of rain led to widespread loss of livestock, as high as 40%–60% in some areas, which decreased milk production as well as exacerbating a poor harvest. Rains are not expected to return until September.^[4] The crisis is compounded by rebel activity around southern Somalia from the Al-Shabaab group.^[8]

The head of the United States Agency for International Development, Rajiv Shah, stated that climate change has contributed to the severity of the crisis. "There's no question that hotter and drier growing conditions in sub-Saharan Africa have reduced the resiliency of these communities."^[14] On the other hand, two experts with the International Livestock Research Institute suggested that it is premature to blame climate change for the drought. While there is consensus that a particularly strong La Niña contributed to the intensity of the drought, the relationship between La Niña and climate change is not well-established.^[15]

The failure of the international community to heed the early warning system has been criticized for leading to a worsening of the crisis.Oxfam's humanitarian director Jane Cocking stated that "This is a preventable disaster and solutions are possible."^[16] Suzanne Dvorak, the chief executive of Save the Children, wrote that "politicians and policymakers in rich countries are often skeptical about taking preventative action because they think aid agencies are inflating the problem. Developing country governments are embarrassed about being seen as unable to feed their people. [...] these children are wasting away in a disaster that we could – and should – have prevented."^[17] Soon after a famine was declared in parts of southern Somalia, Oxfam also charged several European governments of "wilful neglect" over the crisis.^[18] It issued a statement saying that "The warning signs have been seen for months, and the world has been slow to act. Much greater long-term investment is needed in food production and basic development to help people cope with poor rains and ensure that this is the last famine in the region."^[19]

[edit]Humanitarian situation

Women and children waiting to enter the overcrowded refugee camps inDadaab, Kenya

A famine has occurred in Lower Shabelle and Bakool, two regions of southern Somalia.^[2] According to the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, famine will spread to all eight provinces if immediate action is not taken.^[20] The Economist reports that widespread famine may soon occur across the entire Horn of Africa, "a situation...not seen for 25 years".^[16]

Staple prices have risen by up to 240% in southern Somalia, 117% in south-eastern Ethiopia, and 58% in northern Kenya.^[13][17] Malnutrition rates among children have reached 30 percent in parts of Kenya and Ethiopia, and over 50% in southern Somalia.^[21][13][14] At least 11.3 million people in the region are in need of food aid, with 3.7 million of them in Somalia.^[20]

Over 800,000 people have fled from the drought-affected parts of southern Somalia to neighboring countries, in particular Kenya and Ethiopia. Dadaab, Kenya currently hosts at least 440,000 people in three refugee camps. The maximum capacity of the Dadaab camps is 90,000.^[22] More than 1,400 refugees continue to arrive every day from southern Somalia. UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said that many people have died en route.^[23] Within the camps, infant mortality has risen threefold in the last few months. The overall mortality rate is 7.4 out of 10,000 per day, which is more than seven times as high as the "emergency" rate of 1 out of 10,000 per day.^[3][24]

Measles has also broken out in the Dadaab camps, with 462 cases confirmed including 11 deaths.^[8] Ethiopia and Kenya are also facing a severe measles epidemic, attributed in part to the refugee crisis, with over 17,000 confirmed cases in 2011 and at least 114 deaths. WHO statistics put the number of children most at the risk of measles at 2 million.^[25] The epidemic in Ethiopia may have led to an measles outbreak in the United States and other parts of the developed world.^[25]

The World Health Organization stated that "8.8 million people are at risk of malaria and 5 million of cholera" in Ethopia, due to crowded, unsanitary conditions. There has been no report of polio cases yet.^[26] Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) is treating more than 10,000 severely malnourished children in its feeding centers and clinics.^[27]

[edit]Security

The head of United States Agency for International Development, Rajiv Shah stated that the drought may worsen the security situation in the region. "This is happening precisely in a part of the world that our Defense Secretary Leon Panetta just said is a critical part of our fight against terrorism and our overall international security. It just underscores the deep link between food security and national security."^[14]Armed herders are violently competing for dwindling resources. In Kenya alone more than 100 herders have been killed.^[16]

Fears of the Al-Shabaab insurgents continue to hinder aid operations in southern Somalia. "We need significantly better access than we have at the moment to address an emergency of this scale."^[2] UN agencies are "in a dialogue" with al-Shabaab about securing airstrips in areas under the insurgent group's control to deliver aid.^[20] The United Nations World Food Programme is considering a return to southern Somalia, from which it withdrew in 2010 after threats from the rebel group Al-Shabaab. It estimates that there are 1 million people in areas it cannot currently access.^[11] In early July, Al-Shabaab announced that it had withdrawn its restrictions on international humanitarian workers, and that all aid organizations will be allowed in.^[28] However, on 22 July Al-Shabaab stated that the ban on certain organizations remains in place, and furthermore denied that a famine is occurring in parts of southern Somalia.^[29]

[edit]International response

Oxfam distributing clean water to drought-struck area in southern Ethiopia

UN humanitarian agencies have requested US$1.6 billion to address the crisis, but so far secured only half that amount. The European Union recently announced it would provide €5.67 million to help millions of people in the Horn of Africa affected by the drought.^[23] On 16 July, the UK government pledged £52.25 million, on top of £38 million pledged earlier that month and more than £13 million raised by the Disasters Emergency Committee.^[30] On 23 July the Canadian government pledged $50 million in addition to an earlier $22 million commitment.^[31]

The U.S. has pledged an additional $5 million to help refugees from Somalia on top of a previously budgeted $63 million for general support in the larger East Africa region.^[32]However, the U.S. has withheld aid from the Somalia region, due to recent regulations which prevent the sending of food aid that risks "materially benefiting" designated terrorists, in this case the rebel group Al-Shabaab.^[2] The regulations came into force after reports that Al-Shabaab was "taxing food convoys", and as a result U.S. aid spending in Somalia has dropped from $150 million to $13 million this year.^[2] Mercy Corps has stated that "The aid effort will remain totally inadequate if legal restrictions force the US to remain on the sidelines".^[2]

In early July, the UN World Food Programme said that it expects 10 million people across the region to need food aid, revising upward an earlier estimate of six million. On 12 July, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called an urgent emergency meeting with the heads of UN agencies. He stated after the meeting that immediate action must be taken to prevent the crisis from deepening. According to Ban, "The human cost of this crisis is catastrophic. We cannot afford to wait."^[23]

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has begun a "massive" airlift of aid supplies to the Dadaab region, including 100 tonnes of tents to help relieve the congestion at the overcrowded Dadaab camps.^[33] The United Nations carried out its first airlift of emergency supplies in two years to southern Somalia on Wednesday, 13 July. Health kits are also being sent through land routes.^[26] Among other measures being taken by aid agencies are the distribution of cash vouchers to residents, and discussions with traders to freeze rapidly increasing food prices.^[20]

On 19 July, the President of Somalia Sharif Sheikh Ahmed declared a famine in the country, and called for urgently needed donations from foreign governments and individuals.^[34] On 20 July, the United Nations officially declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia, Lower Shabelle and Bakool. This is the first time the UN has declared a famine since the 1984-1985 famine in Ethiopia, when over a million people died.^[2] The famine was declared in response to new data from UN's food security and nutrition analysis unit, which showed that the situation in southern Somalia now meets all three characteristics of widespread famine: 1) more than 30 percent of children suffering from acute malnutrition; 2) more than two adults or four children dying of hunger each day for every group of 10,000 people; and 3) the population having access to less than 2,100 kilocalories of food and four liters of water per day.^[35]

Under international law, there is no mandated response which must follow from an official declaration of famine. However, it is hoped that the use of the term will serve as a "wake-up call" to governments, including some in Europe and almost all in Africa, who have so far failed to respond.^[2] During the declaration, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, stated that UN agencies lack the necessary capacity in terms of clean water, food, shelter and health services to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of drought-affected people from Somalia,^[18] and that nearly $300 million in relief supplies are required over the next two months.^[19] Bowden warns that, given the low crop yields and outbreaks of infectious illnesses caused by the prolonged drought, famine will spread to the rest of southern Somalia within two months if humanitarian aid remains inadequate.^[18][1]

[edit]See also

• 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia
• 2006 Horn of Africa food crisis
• 2010 Sahel famine

[edit]References

1. ^ ^a b c "Famine in Southern Somalia – Evidence for a declaration". FEWS Net. 19 July 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} "UN declares first famine in Africa for three decades as US withholds aid". Telegraph. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
3. ^ ^a b "Somalia Food Crisis One Of Biggest In Decades: U.S. State Department Official". Huffington Post. USA. 16 July 2011. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
4. ^ ^a b c OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) (10 June 2011). "Eastern Africa Drought Humanitarian Report No. 3". reliefweb.int. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
5. ^ ^a b Mike Wooldridge (4 July 2011). "Horn of Africa tested by severe drought". BBC News. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
6. ^ Ford, Liz (21 July 2011). "Somalia famine: US pledges a further $28m in aid". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
7. ^ OCHA, FEWS-Net (24 June 2011). "East Africa: Famine warning for southern Somalia". FEWS-Net. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
8. ^ ^a b c Ben Brown (8 July 2011). "Horn of Africa drought: 'A vision of hell'". BBC News. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
9. ^ "Horn of Africa drought: Somalia aid supplies boosted". BBC News. 12 July 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
10. ^ "Somalia on verge of famine". 18 July 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
11. ^ ^a b "UN to declare famine in parts of drought-hit Somalia". BBC. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
12. ^ "The forgotten people of Africa's famine cry out for aid". Telegraph. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
13. ^ ^a b c "Eastern Africa: Humanitarian Snapshot". 24 June 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
14. ^ ^a b c Joshua Hersh (13 July 2011). "East Africa Famine Threatens Regional Stability, USAID Chief Says". Huffington Post. USA. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
15. ^ "EASTERN AFRICA: Too soon to blame climate change for drought". 12 July 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
16. ^ ^a b c "Once more unto the abyss". The Economist. 7 July 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
17. ^ ^a b "African crisis exposes failed logic of humanitarian system". 18 July 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
18. ^ ^a b c Tran, Mark (20 July 2011). "UN declares famine in Somalia". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
19. ^ ^a b "U.N. declares famine in Somalia; makes urgent appeal to save lives". 20 July 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
20. ^ ^a b c d "UN Declares Famine in Two South Somalia Regions as 3.7 million Need Help". 20 July 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
21. ^ "UN declares famine in rebel-held Somalia". Financial Times. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
22. ^ "Help Kenya manage Somalia crisis, US pleads". Capital FM. 16 July 2011. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
23. ^ ^a b c "UNHCR chief urges more help for drought-hit Somalis". Tehran Times. 14 July 2011. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
24. ^ "Somali refugee death rate at 15 times above norm: UNHCR".Hindustan Times. India. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
25. ^ ^a b "Ethiopia, Kenya Face Measles Epidemic". 20 July 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
26. ^ ^a b "Millions at risk of cholera in Ethiopia: WHO". Vancouver Sun. 15 July 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
27. ^ MSF (22 July 2011). "MSF: No More Delays or Restrictions For Somalis Needing Aid and Refuge". Retrieved 22 July 2011.
28. ^ United Nations (13 July 2011). "Aid effort for drought-hit Horn of Africa must include long-term measures – UN". UN News Centre. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
29. ^ "Al-Shabab says aid group ban remains in place". Al Jazeera English. 22 July 2011. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
30. ^ "Andrew Mitchell urges action on Africa drought". BBC News. 16 July 2011. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
31. ^ "African famine relief gets $50M more from Canada". CBC News. 23 July 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
32. ^ "US Pledges $5 million for Somalia". USA Today.
33. ^ "Millions at risk of cholera in Ethiopia, WHO warns". 15 July 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
34. ^ "Somali President Declares Famine". VOA News. 19 July 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
35. ^ Uri Friedman (20 July 2011). "What It Took for the U.N. to Declare a Famine in Somalia". Retrieved 20 July 2011.

[edit]External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 2011 Horn of Africa famine

• Donations to UNICEF – Horn of Africa
• Oxfam – East Africa food crisis
• Mercy Corps – Horn of Africa Hunger Crisis
• Eastern Africa Drought – Humanitarian Snapshot
• Evidence for a Famine Declaration
• FEWS Net Press release

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Categories: 2011 in Somalia | 2011 in Djibouti | 2011 in Sudan | 2011 in South Sudan | 2011 in Uganda | 2011 in Kenya | 2011 in Ethiopia |Natural disasters in Somalia | Natural disasters in Djibouti | Natural disasters in Sudan | Natural disasters in South Sudan | Natural disasters in Uganda | Natural disasters in Kenya | Famines in Africa | Droughts in Africa | 2011 natural disasters | Natural disasters in Ethiopia

Famine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Famine (disambiguation).

Child victim of the 1932-1933 Famine in Ukraine.

A famine is a widespread scarcity of food that may apply to any faunal species. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increasedmortality.

Emergency measures in relieving famine primarily include providing deficient micronutrients, such asvitamins and minerals, through fortified sachet powders or directly through supplements.^[1][2] Thefamine relief model increasingly used by aid groups calls for giving cash or cash vouchers to the hungry to pay local farmers instead of buying food from donor countries, often required by law, as it wastes money on transport costs.^[3][4]

Long-term measures include investment in modern agriculture techniques, such as fertilizers andirrigation, which largely eradicated hunger in the developed world.^[5] World Bank strictures restrict government subsidies for farmers, and increasing use of fertilizers is opposed by some environmental groups because of its unintended consequences: adverse effects on water supplies and habitat.^[6][7]

Contents  [hide] 1 Causes of famine 1.1 Risk of future famine 2 Characteristics of famine 2.1 Effects of famine 2.2 Levels of food insecurity 3 Famine action 3.1 Famine prevention 3.2 Famine relief 4 Historical famine, by region 4.1 Famine in Africa 4.1.1 Cases since 2000 4.1.2 Initiatives to increase Food Security 4.2 Famine in Asia 4.2.1 Cambodia 4.2.2 China 4.2.2.1 Great Leap Forward 4.2.3 India 4.2.4 Japan 4.2.5 Middle East 4.2.6 North Korea 4.2.7 Vietnam 4.3 Famine in Europe 4.3.1 Western Europe 4.3.1.1 Italy 4.3.1.2 England 4.3.1.3 Iceland 4.3.1.4 Finland 4.3.1.5 Ireland 4.3.2 Russia and the USSR 4.4 Famine in Latin America 5 See also 6 Footnotes 7 References 8 Sources & further reading 9 External links

[edit]Causes of famine

See also: Theories of famines

A victim of starvation in besieged Leningrad suffering from dystrophia in 1941.^[8]

Definitions of famines are based on three different categories – these include food supply-based, food consumption-based and mortality-based definitions. Some definitions of famines are:

• Blix – Widespread food shortage leading to significant rise in regional death rates.^[9]
• Brown and Eckholm – Sudden, sharp reduction in food supply resulting in widespread hunger.^[10]
• Scrimshaw – Sudden collapse in level of food consumption of large numbers of people.^[11]
• Ravallion – Unusually high mortality with unusually severe threat to food intake of some segments of a population.^[12]
• Cuny – A set of conditions that occurs when large numbers of people in a region cannot obtain sufficient food, resulting in widespread, acute malnutrition.^[13]

Food shortages in a population are caused either by a lack of food or by difficulties in food distribution; it may be worsened by natural climate fluctuations and by extreme political conditions related to oppressive government or warfare. One of the proportionally largest historical famines was that of the Great Famine in Ireland. It began in 1845 because of potato disease and occurred even as food was being shipped from Ireland to England. Only the English could afford to pay higher prices. Recently historians have revised their assessments about how much control the English could have exercised in reducing the famine, finding they did more to try to help than is generally understood.^[14] The conventional explanation until 1981 for the cause of famines was the Food availability decline (FAD) hypothesis. The assumption was that the central cause of all famines was a decline in food availability.^[15] However, FAD could not explain why only a certain section of the population such as the agricultural laborer was affected by famines while others were insulated from famines.^[16] Based on the studies of some recent famines, the decisive role of FAD has been questioned and it has been suggested that the causal mechanism for precipitating starvation includes many variables other than just decline of food availability. According to this view, famines are a result of entitlements, the theory being proposed is called the "failure of exchange entitlements" or FEE.^[16] A person may own various commodities that can be exchanged in a market economy for the other commodities he or she needs. The exchange can happen via trading or production or through a combination of the two. These entitlements are called trade-based or production-based entitlements. Per this proposed view, famines are precipitated due to a break down in the ability of the person to exchange his entitlements.^[16] An example of famines due to FEE is the inability of an agricultural laborer to exchange his primary entitlement, i.e., labor for rice when his employment became erratic or was completely eliminated.^[16]

Some elements make a particular region more vulnerable to famine. These include:^[17]

• Poverty
• Inappropriate physical infrastructure
• Inappropriate social infrastructure
• A suppressive political regime
• A weak or under-prepared government

In certain cases, such as the Great Leap Forward in China (which produced the largest famine in absolute numbers), North Korea in the mid-1990s, or Zimbabwe in the early-2000s, famine can occur as an unintentional result of government policy. Malawi ended its famine by subsidizing farmers against the strictures of the World Bank.^[6] During the 1973 Wollo Famine in Ethiopia, food was shipped out of Wollo to the capital city of Addis Ababa, where it could command higher prices. In the late-1970s and early-1980s, residents of the dictatorships of Ethiopia and Sudan suffered massive famines, but the democracies of Botswana and Zimbabwe avoided them, despite also have severe drops in national food production. In Somalia, famine occurred because of a failed state.

Many famines are caused by imbalance of food production compared to the large populations of countries whose population exceeds the regional carrying capacity. Historically, famines have occurred from agricultural problems such as drought, crop failure, or pestilence. Changing weather patterns, the ineffectiveness of medieval governments in dealing with crises, wars, and epidemic diseases such as theBlack Death helped to cause hundreds of famines in Europe during the Middle Ages, including 95 in Britain and 75 in France.^[18] In France, the Hundred Years' War, crop failures and epidemics reduced the population by two-thirds.^[19]

The failure of a harvest or change in conditions, such as drought, can create a situation whereby large numbers of people continue to live where the carrying capacity of the land has temporarily dropped radically. Famine is often associated with subsistence agriculture. The total absence of agriculture in an economically strong area does not cause famine; Arizona and other wealthy regions import the vast majority of their food, since such regions produce sufficient economic goods for trade.

Famines have also been caused by volcanism. The 1815 eruption of the Mount Tambora volcano in Indonesia caused crop failures and famines worldwide and caused the worst famine of the 19th century. The current consensus of the scientific community is that the aerosols and dust released into the upper atmosphere causes cooler temperatures by preventing the sun's energy from reaching the ground. The same mechanism is theorized to be caused by very large meteorite impacts to the extent of causing mass extinctions.

[edit]Risk of future famine

See also: Water crisis

This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help improve the article by updating it. There may be additional information on the talk page.(December 2010)

The Guardian reports that in 2007 approximately 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded.^[20] If current trends of soil degradation continue in Africa, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU's Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.^[21] As of late 2007, increased farming for use in biofuels,^[22] along with world oil prices at nearly $100 a barrel,^[23] has pushed up the price of grain used to feed poultry and dairy cows and other cattle, causing higher prices of wheat (up 58%), soybean (up 32%), and maize (up 11%) over the year.^[24][25] In 2007 Food riots have taken place in many countries across the world.^[26][27][28] An epidemic of stem rust, which is destructive to wheat and is caused by race Ug99, has in 2007 spread across Africa and into Asia.^[29][30]

Beginning in the 20th century, nitrogen fertilizers, new pesticides, desert farming, and other agricultural technologies began to be used to increase food production, in part to combat famine. Between 1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution influenced agriculture, world grain production increased by 250%. Much of this gain is non-sustainable. Such agricultural technologies temporarily increased crop yields, but as early as 1995, there were signs that they may be contributing to the decline of arable land (e.g. persistence of pesticides leading to soil contamination and decline of area available for farming). Developed nations have shared these technologies with developing nations with a famine problem, but there are ethical limits to pushing such technologies on lesser developed countries. This is often attributed to an association of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides with a lack of sustainability.

David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agriculture at Cornell University, and Mario Giampietro, senior researcher at the National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition (INRAN), place in their study Food, Land, Population and the U.S. Economy the maximum U.S. population for a sustainable economy at 200 million.^[31] To achieve a sustainable economy and avert disaster, the United States must reduce its population by at least one-third, and world population will have to be reduced by two-thirds, says study.^[32] The authors of this study believe that the mentioned agricultural crisis will only begin to impact us after 2020, and will not become critical until 2050. The oncoming peaking of global oil production (and subsequent decline of production), along with the peak of North American natural gas production will very likely precipitate this agricultural crisis much sooner than expected.

Geologist Dale Allen Pfeiffer claims that coming decades could see spiraling food prices without relief and massive starvation on a global level such as never experienced before.^[33] Water deficits, which are already spurring heavy grain imports in numerous smaller countries, may soon do the same in larger countries, such as China or India.^[34] The water tables are falling in scores of countries (including Northern China, the US, and India) due to widespread overpumping using powerful diesel and electric pumps. Other countries affected include Pakistan, Iran, and Mexico. This will eventually lead to water scarcity and cutbacks in grain harvest. Even with the overpumping of its aquifers, China has developed a grain deficit, contributing to the upward pressure on grain prices. Most of the three billion people projected to be added worldwide by mid-century will be born in countries already experiencing water shortages.

After China and India, there is a second tier of smaller countries with large water deficits — Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Mexico, and Pakistan. Four of these already import a large share of their grain. Only Pakistan remains marginally self-sufficient. But with a population expanding by 4 million a year, it will also soon turn to the world market for grain.^[35][36] According to a UN climate report, the Himalayan glaciers that are the principal dry-season water sources of Asia's biggest rivers - Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween and Yellow - could disappear by 2035 as temperatures rise and human demand rises.^[37] It was later revealed that the source used by the UN climate report actually stated 2350, not 2035.^[38] Approximately 2.4 billion people live in the drainage basin of the Himalayan rivers.^[39] India, China,Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar could experience floods followed by severe droughts in coming decades.^[40] In Indiaalone, the Ganges provides water for drinking and farming for more than 500 million people.^[41][42]

[edit]Characteristics of famine

Famine strikes Sub-Saharan African countries the hardest, but with exhaustion of food resources, overdrafting of groundwater, wars, internal struggles, and economic failure, famine continues to be a worldwide problem with hundreds of millions of people suffering.^[43] These famines cause widespread malnutrition and impoverishment; The famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s had an immense death toll, although Asian famines of the 20th century have also produced extensive death tolls. Modern African famines are characterized by widespread destitution and malnutrition, with heightened mortality confined to young children.

Relief technologies including immunization, improved public health infrastructure, general food rations and supplementary feeding for vulnerable children, has provided temporary mitigation to the mortality impacts of famines, while leaving their economic consequences unchanged, and not solving the underlying issue of too large a regional population relative to food production capability. Humanitarian crises may also arise from genocide campaigns, civil wars, refugee flows and episodes of extreme violence and state collapse, creating famine conditions among the affected populations.

Despite repeated stated intentions by the world's leaders to end hunger and famine, famine remains a chronic threat in much of Africa and Asia. In July 2005, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network labelled Niger with emergency status, as well as Chad, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia and Zimbabwe. In January 2006, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warned that 11 million people in Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia were in danger of starvation due to the combination of severe drought and military conflicts.^[44] In 2006, the most serious humanitarian crisis in Africa is in Sudan's region Darfur.

Some believed that the Green Revolution was an answer to famine in the 1970s and 1980s. The Green Revolution began in the 20th century with hybrid strains of high-yielding crops. Between 1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture around the globe, world grain production increased by 250%.^[45] Some criticize the process, stating that these new high-yielding crops require more chemicalfertilizers and pesticides, which can harm the environment. However, it was an option for developing nations suffering from famine. These high-yielding crops make it technically possible to feed more people. However, there are indications that regional food production has peaked in many world sectors, due to certain strategies associated with intensive agriculture such as groundwater overdrafting and overuse ofpesticides and other agricultural chemicals.

Frances Moore Lappé, later co-founder of the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First) argued in Diet for a Small Planet (1971) that vegetarian diets can provide food for larger populations, with the same resources, compared to omnivorous diets.

Noting that modern famines are sometimes aggravated by misguided economic policies, political design to impoverish or marginalize certain populations, or acts of war, political economists have investigated the political conditions under which famine is prevented. Amartya Sen^{[note 1]} states that the liberal institutions that exist in India, including competitive elections and a free press, have played a major role in preventing famine in that country since independence. Alex de Waal has developed this theory to focus on the "political contract" between rulers and people that ensures famine prevention, noting the rarity of such political contracts in Africa, and the danger that international relief agencies will undermine such contracts through removing the locus of accountability for famines from national governments.

[edit]Effects of famine

The demographic impacts of famine are sharp. Mortality is concentrated among children and the elderly. A consistent demographic fact is that in all recorded famines, male mortality exceeds female, even in those populations (such as northern India and Pakistan) where there is a normal times male longevity advantage. Reasons for this may include greater female resilience under the pressure of malnutrition, and possibly female's naturally higher percentage of body fat. Famine is also accompanied by lower fertility. Famines therefore leave the reproductive core of a population—adult women—lesser affected compared to other population categories, and post-famine periods are often characterized a "rebound" with increased births. Even though the theories of Thomas Malthus would predict that famines reduce the size of the population commensurate with available food resources, in fact even the most severe famines have rarely dented population growth for more than a few years. The mortality in China in 1958–61, Bengal in 1943, and Ethiopia in 1983–85 was all made up by a growing population over just a few years. Of greater long-term demographic impact is emigration: Ireland was chiefly depopulated after the 1840s famines by waves of emigration.

[edit]Levels of food insecurity

Main article: Famine scales

In modern times, local and political governments and non-governmental organizations that deliver famine relief have limited resources with which to address the multiple situations of food insecurity that are occurring simultaneously. Various methods of categorizing the gradations of food security have thus been used in order to most efficiently allocate food relief. One of the earliest were the Indian Famine Codes devised by the British in the 1880s. The Codes listed three stages of food insecurity: near-scarcity, scarcity and famine, and were highly influential in the creation of subsequent famine warning or measurement systems. The early warning system developed to monitor the region inhabited by the Turkana people in northern Kenya also has three levels, but links each stage to a pre-planned response to mitigate the crisis and prevent its deterioration.

The experiences of famine relief organizations throughout the world over the 1980s and 1990s resulted in at least two major developments: the "livelihoods approach" and the increased use of nutrition indicators to determine the severity of a crisis. Individuals and groups in food stressful situations will attempt to cope by rationing consumption, finding alternative means to supplement income, etc. before taking desperate measures, such as selling off plots of agricultural land. When all means of self-support are exhausted, the affected population begins to migrate in search of food or fall victim to outright mass starvation. Famine may thus be viewed partially as a social phenomenon, involving markets, the price of food, and social support structures. A second lesson drawn was the increased use of rapid nutrition assessments, in particular of children, to give a quantitative measure of the famine's severity.

Since 2004, many of the most important organizations in famine relief, such as the World Food Programme and the U.S. Agency for International Development, have adopted a five-level scale measuring intensity and magnitude. The intensity scale uses both livelihoods' measures and measurements of mortality and child malnutrition to categorize a situation as food secure, food insecure, food crisis, famine, severe famine, and extreme famine. The number of deaths determines the magnitude designation, with under 1000 fatalities defining a "minor famine" and a "catastrophic famine" resulting in over 1,000,000 deaths.

[edit]Famine action

[edit]Famine prevention

Main article: food security

The effort to bring modern agricultural techniques found in the West, such as nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides, to Asia, called the Green Revolution, resulted in decreases in malnutrition similar to those seen earlier in Western nations. This was possible because of existinginfrastructure and institutions that are in short supply in Africa, such as a system of roads or public seed companies that made seeds available.^[47] Supporting farmers in areas of food insecurity, through such measures as free or subsidized fertilizers and seeds, increases food harvest and reduces food prices.^[6][48]

The World Bank and some rich nations press nations that depend on them for aid to cut back or eliminate subsidized agricultural inputs such as fertilizer, in the name of privatization even as the United States and Europe extensively subsidized their own farmers.^[6][49] Many, if not most, of the farmers are too poor to afford fertilizer at market prices.^[6] For example, in the case of Malawi, almost five million of its 13 million people used to need emergency food aid. However, after the government changed policy and subsidies for fertilizer and seed were introduced, farmers produced record-breaking corn harvests in 2006 and 2007 as production leaped to 3.4 million in 2007 from 1.2 million in 2005.^[6] This lowered food prices and increased wages for farm workers.^[6] Malawi became a major food exporter, selling more corn to the World Food Program and the United Nations than any other country in Southern Africa.^[6] Proponents for helping the farmers includes the economistJeffrey Sachs, who has championed the idea that wealthy countries should invest in fertilizer and seed for Africa's farmers.^[6]

[edit]Famine relief

Main article: famine relief

Deficient Micronutrient can be provided through fortifying foods.^[50] Fortifying foods such as peanut butter sachets (see Plumpy'Nut) andSpirulina have revolutionized emergency feeding in humanitarian emergencies because they can be eaten directly from the packet, do not require refrigeration or mixing with scarce clean water, can be stored for years and, vitally, can be absorbed by extremely ill children.^[1] The United Nations World Food Conference of 1974 declared Spirulina as 'the best food for the future' and its ready harvest every 24 hours make it a potent tool to eradicate malnutrition. Additionally, supplements, such as Vitamin A capsules or Zinc tablets to cure diarrhea in children, are used.^[2]

There is a growing realization among aid groups that giving cash or cash vouchers instead of food is a cheaper, faster, and more efficient way to deliver help to the hungry, particularly in areas where food is available but unaffordable.^[3] The UN's World Food Program, the biggest non-governmental distributor of food, announced that it will begin distributing cash and vouchers instead of food in some areas, which Josette Sheeran, the WFP's executive director, described as a "revolution" in food aid.^[3][4] The aid agency Concern Worldwide is piloting an method through a mobile phone operator, Safaricom, which runs a money transfer program that allows cash to be sent from one part of the country to another.^[3]

However, for people in a drought living a long way from and with limited access to markets, delivering food may be the most appropriate way to help.^[3] Fred Cuny stated that "the chances of saving lives at the outset of a relief operation are greatly reduced when food is imported. By the time it arrives in the country and gets to people, many will have died."^[51] US Law, which requires buying food at home rather than where the hungry live, is inefficient because approximately half of what is spent goes for transport.^[52] Fred Cuny further pointed out "studies of every recent famine have shown that food was available in-country — though not always in the immediate food deficit area" and "even though by local standards the prices are too high for the poor to purchase it, it would usually be cheaper for a donor to buy the hoarded food at the inflated price than to import it from abroad."^[53]

Ethiopia has been pioneering a program that has now become part of the World Bank's prescribed recipe for coping with a food crisis and had been seen by aid organizations as a model of how to best help hungry nations. Through the country's main food assistance program, the Productive Safety Net Program, Ethiopia has been giving rural residents who are chronically short of food, a chance to work for food or cash. Foreign aid organizations like the World Food Program were then able to buy food locally from surplus areas to distribute in areas with a shortage of food.^[54]

[edit]Historical famine, by region

Further information: List of famines

During the 20th century, an estimated 70 million people died from famines across the world, of whom an estimated 30 million died during thefamine of 1958–61 in China.^{[citation needed]} The other most notable famines of the century included the 1942–1945 disaster in Bengal, famines in China in 1928 and 1942, and a sequence of famines in the Soviet Union, including the Soviet famine of 1932-1933, Stalin's famine inflicted on USSR in 1932–33. A few of the great famines of the late 20th century were: the Biafran famine in the 1960s, the disaster in Cambodia in the 1970s, the Ethiopian famine of 1984–85 and the North Korean famine of the 1990s.

[edit]Famine in Africa

Malnourished children in Niger, during the 2005 famine.

In the mid-22nd century BC, a sudden and short-lived climatic change that caused reduced rainfall resulted in several decades of drought in Upper Egypt. The resulting famine and civil strife is believed to have been a major cause of the collapse of the Old Kingdom. An account from the First Intermediate Period states, "All of Upper Egypt was dying of hunger and people were eating their children." In 1680s, famine extended across the entire Sahel, and in 1738 half the population of Timbuktu died of famine.^[55] In Egypt, between 1687 and 1731, there were six famines.^[56] The famine that afflicted Egypt in 1784 cost it roughly one-sixth of its population.^[57] At the end of the 18th century,^[58] and even more at the beginning of the nineteenth, theMaghreb suffered from the deadly combination of plague and famine.^[59] Tripoli and Tunis experienced famine in 1784 and 1785 respectively.^[60]

According to John Iliffe, "Portuguese records of Angola from the 16th century show that a great famine occurred on average every seventy years; accompanied by epidemic disease, it might kill one-third or one-half of the population, destroying the demographic growth of a generation and forcing colonists back into the river valleys."^[61]

Historians of African famine have documented repeated famines in Ethiopia. Possibly the worst episode occurred in 1888 and succeeding years, as the epizootic rinderpest, introduced into Eritrea by infected cattle, spread southwards reaching ultimately as far as South Africa. In Ethiopia it was estimated that as much as 90 percent of the national herd died, rendering rich farmers and herders destitute overnight. This coincided with drought associated with an el Nino oscillation, human epidemics of smallpox, and in several countries, intense war. The Ethiopian Great famine that afflicted Ethiopia from 1888 to 1892 cost it roughly one-third of its population.^[62] In Sudan the year 1888 is remembered as the worst famine in history, on account of these factors and also the exactions imposed by the Mahdist state. Colonial "pacification" efforts often caused severe famine, as for example with the repression of the Maji Maji revolt in Tanganyika in 1906. The introduction of cash crops such as cotton, and forcible measures to impel farmers to grow these crops, also impoverished the peasantry in many areas, such as northern Nigeria, contributing to greater vulnerability to famine when severe drought struck in 1913. However, for the middle part of the 20th century, agriculturalists, economists and geographers did not consider Africa to be famine prone (they were much more concerned about Asia).^{[citation needed]} There were notable counter-examples, such as the famine inRwanda during World War II and the Malawi famine of 1949, but most famines were localized and brief food shortages. The specter of famine recurred only in the early 1970s, when Ethiopia and the west African Sahel suffered drought and famine. The Ethiopian famine of that time was closely linked to the crisis of feudalism in that country, and in due course helped to bring about the downfall of the Emperor Haile Selassie. The Sahelian famine was associated with the slowly growing crisis of pastoralism in Africa, which has seen livestock herding decline as a viable way of life over the last two generations.

Since then, African famines have become more frequent, more widespread and more severe. Many African countries are not self-sufficient in food production, relying on income from cash crops to import food. Agriculture in Africa is susceptible to climatic fluctuations, especiallydroughts which can reduce the amount of food produced locally. Other agricultural problems include soil infertility, land degradation anderosion, swarms of desert locusts, which can destroy whole crops, and livestock diseases. The Sahara reportedly spreads at a rate of up to 30 miles a year.^[63] The most serious famines have been caused by a combination of drought, misguided economic policies, and conflict. The 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia, for example, was the outcome of all these three factors, made worse by the Communist government's censorship of the emerging crisis. In Sudan at the same date, drought and economic crisis combined with denials of any food shortage by the then-government of President Gaafar Nimeiry, to create a crisis that killed perhaps 250,000 people—and helped bring about a popular uprising that overthrew Nimeiry.

Numerous factors make the food security situation in Africa tenuous, including political instability, armed conflict and civil war, corruption and mismanagement in handling food supplies, and trade policies that harm African agriculture. An example of a famine created by human rights abuses is the 1998 Sudan famine. AIDS is also having long-term economic effects on agriculture by reducing the available workforce, and is creating new vulnerabilities to famine by overburdening poor households. On the other hand, in the modern history of Africa on quite a few occasions famines acted as a major source of acute political instability.^[64] In Africa, if current trends of population growth and soil degradation continue, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU's Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.^[21]

Recent examples include Sahel drought of the 1970s, Ethiopia in 1973 and mid-1980s, Sudan in the late-1970s and again in 1990 and 1998. The 1980 famine in Karamoja, Uganda was, in terms of mortality rates, one of the worst in history. 21% of the population died, including 60% of the infants. [2]

In October 1984, television reports around the world carried footage of starving Ethiopians whose plight was centered around a feeding station near the town of Korem. BBC newsreader Michael Buerk gave moving commentary of the tragedy on 23 October 1984, which he described as a "biblical famine". This prompted the Band Aid single, which was organised by Bob Geldof and featured more than 20 other pop stars. TheLive Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia raised further funds for the cause. An estimated 900,000 people die within one year as a result of the famine, but the tens of millions of pounds raised by Band Aid and Live Aid are widely believed to have saved the lives of around 6,000,000 more Ethiopians who were in danger of death. Essentially if Band Aid and Live Aid had never happened the death toll of the Ethiopian famine could have been as high as 7,000,000 or nearly a quarter of the population at the time.^{[citation needed]}

[edit]Cases since 2000

Main article: 2005–06 Niger food crisis

Laure Souley holds her three-year-old daughter and an infant son at a MSF aide centre during the 2005 famine, Maradi Niger.

The 2005–06 Niger food crisis was a severe but localized food security crisis in the regions of northern Maradi, Tahoua, Tillabéri, and Zinder of Niger. It was caused by an early end to the 2004 rains, desert locust damage to some pasture lands, high food prices, and chronic poverty. In the affected area, 2.4 million of 3.6 million people are considered highly vulnerable to food insecurity. An international assessment stated that, of these, over 800,000 face extreme food insecurity and another 800,000 in moderately insecure food situations are in need of aid.

Main article: 2010 Sahel famine

The 2010 Sahel famine hit millions in Niger and across West Africa face food shortages after erratic rains hit farming in countries in the Sahel region south of the Sahara desert, the European Commission's aid group said Thursday. The erratic rains in the 2009/2010 agricultural season have resulted in an enormous deficit in food production in these countries," he said of nations such as Niger, Chad, northern Burkina Faso and northern Nigeria. He said strong leadership would be required from the United Nations and the rest of the international community to mobilise aid. "If we work fast enough, early enough, it won't be a famine. If we don't there is a strong risk."

In July 2011, a severe drought in Eastern Africa led to a famine in several regions in the Horn of Africa that has caused thousands to die.^[65]

July 6 saw the Methodist Relief and Development Fund (MRDF) aid experts say that more than 1,500,000 Nigerians were at risk of famine due to a month long heat wave that was hovering over Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Morocco. A fund of about £20,000 was distributed to the crisis-hit countries of Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.^[66]

[edit]Initiatives to increase Food Security

Against a backdrop of conventional interventions through the state or markets, alternative initiatives have been pioneered to address the problem of food security. An example is the "Community Area-Based Development Approach" to agricultural development ("CABDA"), an NGO programme with the objective of providing an alternative approach to increasing food security in Africa. CABDA proceeds through specific areas of intervention such as the introduction of drought-resistant crops and new methods of food production such as agro-forestry. Piloted in Ethiopia in the 1990s it has spread to Malawi, Uganda, Eritrea and Kenya. In an analysis of the programme by the Overseas Development Institute, CABDA's focus on individual and community capacity-building is highlighted. This enables farmers to influence and drive their own development through community-run institutions, bringing food security to their household and region.^[67]

[edit]Famine in Asia

[edit]Cambodia

In 1975, the Khmer Rouge entered the capital of Phnom Penh and took control of Cambodia. With the application of the fundamental ideals ofcommunism, the new government under Pol Pot drove all urban residents into the countryside to work on communal farm and civil work projects. Without external assistance, with 75% of the necessary draft animals dead from the previous four years of war, agricultural guidelines written by idealists, and work overseen by zealous cadre, the country soon sunk into the depths of famine. No international relief would come until the Vietnamese army invaded in 1979 and liberated the country. While Pol Pot was in power, between one and three million people died out of a total population of eight million. Many were executed, most died from malnourishment and exhaustion as a result of the famine caused by inept and negligent government officials.^[68][69][70]

[edit]China

See also: Great Chinese Famine

Chinese officials engaged in famine relief, 19th C. engraving

Chinese scholars had kept count of 1,828 instances of famine since 108 B.C. to 1911 in one province or another — an average of close to one famine per year.^[71] From 1333 to 1337 a terrible famine killed 6 million Chinese. The four famines of 1810, 1811, 1846, and 1849 are said to have killed no fewer than 45 million people.^[72] The period from 1850 to 1873 saw, as a result of theTaiping Rebellion, drought, and famine, the population of China drop by over 60 million people.^[73]China's Qing Dynasty bureaucracy, which devoted extensive attention to minimizing famines, is credited with averting a series of famines following El Niño-Southern Oscillation-linked droughts and floods. These events are comparable, though somewhat smaller in scale, to the ecological trigger events of China's vast 19th century famines. (Pierre-Etienne Will, Bureaucracy and Famine) Qing China carried out its relief efforts, which included vast shipments of food, a requirement that the rich open their storehouses to the poor, and price regulation, as part of a state guarantee of subsistence to the peasantry (known as ming-sheng).

When a stressed monarchy shifted from state management and direct shipments of grain to monetary charity in the mid-nineteenth century, the system broke down. Thus the 1867–68 famine under the Tongzhi Restoration was successfully relieved but the Great North China Famineof 1877–78 , caused by drought across northern China, was a catastrophe. The province of Shanxi was substantially depopulated as grains ran out, and desperately starving people stripped forests, fields, and their very houses for food. Estimated mortality is 9.5 to 13 million people.^[74] (Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts)

[edit]Great Leap Forward

Main article: Great Leap Forward

The largest famine of the 20th century, and almost certainly of all time, was the 1958–61 Great Leap Forward famine in China. The immediate causes of this famine lay in Mao Zedong's ill-fated attempt to transform China from an agricultural nation to an industrial power in one huge leap. Communist Party cadres across China insisted that peasants abandon their farms for collective farms, and begin to produce steel in small foundries, often melting down their farm instruments in the process. Collectivisation undermined incentives for the investment of labor and resources in agriculture; unrealistic plans for decentralized metal production sapped needed labor; unfavorable weather conditions; and communal dining halls encouraged overconsumption of available food (see Chang, G, and Wen, G (1997), "Communal dining and the Chinese Famine 1958-1961" ). Such was the centralized control of information and the intense pressure on party cadres to report only good news—such as production quotas met or exceeded—that information about the escalating disaster was effectively suppressed. When the leadership did become aware of the scale of the famine, it did little to respond, and continued to ban any discussion of the cataclysm. This blanket suppression of news was so effective that very few Chinese citizens were aware of the scale of the famine, and the greatest peacetime demographic disaster of the 20th century only became widely known twenty years later, when the veil of censorship began to lift.

The 1958–61 famine is estimated to have caused excess mortality of about 36 to 45 million,^[75][76] with a further 30 million cancelled or delayed births.^[77] It was only when the famine had wrought its worst that Mao was forced to reverse agricultural collectivisation policies, which were effectively dismantled in 1978. China has not experienced a famine of the proportions of the Great Leap Forward since 1961.^[78]

[edit]India

Main article: Famine in India

Owing to its almost entire dependence upon the monsoon rains, India is vulnerable to crop failures, which upon occasion deepen into famine.^[79] There were 14 famines in India between 11th and 17th century (Bhatia, 1985). For example, during the 1022–1033 Great famines in India entire provinces were depopulated. Famine in Deccan killed at least 2 million people in 1702-1704. B.M. Bhatia believes that the earlier famines were localised, and it was only after 1860, during the British rule, that famine came to signify general shortage of foodgrains in the country. There were approximately 25 major famines spread through states such as Tamil Nadu in the south, and Bihar and Bengal in the east during the latter half of the 19th century.

A child suffering extreme starvation in India, 1972.

Romesh Chunder Dutt argued as early as 1900, and present-day scholars such as Amartya Sen agree, that some historic famines were a product of both uneven rainfall and British economic and administrative policies, which since 1857 had led to the seizure and conversion of local farmland to foreign-owned plantations, restrictions on internal trade, heavy taxation of Indian citizens to support British expeditions in Afghanistan (see The Second Anglo-Afghan War), inflationary measures that increased the price of food, and substantial exports of staple crops from India to Britain. (Dutt, 1900 and 1902; Srivastava, 1968; Sen, 1982; Bhatia, 1985.) Some British citizens, such as William Digby, agitated for policy reforms and famine relief, but Lord Lytton, the governing British viceroy in India, opposed such changes in the belief that they would stimulate shirking by Indian workers. The first, theBengal famine of 1770, is estimated to have taken around 10 million lives — one-third of Bengal's population at the time. Other notable famines include the Great Famine of 1876–78, in which 6.1 million to 10.3 million people died^[80] and the Indian famine of 1899–1900, in which 1.25 to 10 million people died.^[80] The famines continued until independence in 1947, with the Bengal Famine of 1943–44— even though there were no crop failures —killing 1.5 million to 3 million Bengalis during World War II.

The observations of the Famine Commission of 1880 support the notion that food distribution is more to blame for famines than food scarcity. They observed that each province in British India, includingBurma, had a surplus of foodgrains, and the annual surplus was 5.16 million tons (Bhatia, 1970). At that time, annual export of rice and other grains from India was approximately one million tons.

"	Population growth worsened the plight of the peasantry. As a result of peace and improved sanitation and health, the Indian population rose from perhaps 100 million in 1700 to 300 million by 1920. While encouraging agricultural productivity, the British also provided economic incentives to have more children to help in the fields. Although a similar population increase occurred in Europe at the same time, the growing numbers could be absorbed by industrialization or emigration to the Americas and Australia. India enjoyed neither an industrial revolution nor an increase in food growing. Moreover, Indian landlords had a stake in the cash crop system and discouraged innovation. As a result, population numbers far outstripped the amount of available food and land, creating dire poverty and widespread hunger .	"
—-Craig A. Lockard, Societies, Networks, and Transitions[81]

In 1966, there was a close call in Bihar, when the United States allocated 900,000 tons of grain to fight the famine. Three years of drought in India resulted in an estimated 1.5 million deaths from starvation and disease.^[82]

[edit]Japan

Between 1603 and 1868 there were, according to one authority, at least 130 famines, of which 21 were widespread and serious.^[83]

[edit]Middle East

Iraq, for example, had suffered famines in 1801, 1827 and 1831. In Anatolia, a great famine erupted in 1873-74 and killed tens of thousands.^[84]

The Great Persian Famine of 1870–1871 is believed to have caused the death of 1.5 million persons in Persia (present–day Iran), which would represent 20–25 percent of Persia's estimated total population of 6–7 million.^[85]

Lebanon became increasingly dependent on food imports from abroad, making the country extremely vulnerable to famine during World War I. By the end of the war, an estimated 100,000 of Lebanon's 450,000 population had died of famine.^[86]

[edit]North Korea

Main article: North Korean famine

Famine struck North Korea in the mid-1990s, set off by unprecedented floods. This autarkic urban, industrial society had achieved food self-sufficiency in prior decades through a massive industrialization of agriculture. However, the economic system relied on massive concessionary inputs of fossil fuels, primarily from the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. When the Soviet collapse and China's marketization switched trade to a hard currency, full price basis, North Korea's economy collapsed. The vulnerable agricultural sector experienced a massive failure in 1995–96, expanding to full-fledged famine by 1996–99. An estimated 600,000 died of starvation (other estimates range from 200,000 to 3.5 million).^[87] North Korea has not yet resumed its food self-sufficiency and relies on external food aid fromChina, Japan, South Korea and the United States. While Woo-Cumings have focused on the FAD side of the famine, Moon argues that FAD shifted the incentive structure of the authoritarian regime to react in a way that forced millions of disenfranchised people to starve to death (Moon, 2009).^[88]

[edit]Vietnam

Various famines have occurred in Vietnam. Japanese occupation during World War II caused the Vietnamese Famine of 1945, which caused 2 million deaths, or 10% of the population then.^[89] Following the unification of the country after the Vietnam War, Vietnam experienced a food shortage in the 1980s, which prompted many people to flee the country.

[edit]Famine in Europe

[edit]Western Europe

Further information: Medieval demography and Crisis of the Late Middle Ages

The Great Famine of 1315–1317 (or to 1322) was the first major food crisis that struck Europe in the 14th century. Millions in northern Europe would die over an extended number of years, marking a clear end to the earlier period of growth and prosperity during the 11th and 12th centuries.^[90] Starting with bad weather in the spring of 1315, widespread crop failures lasted until the summer of 1317, from which Europe did not fully recover until 1322. It was a period marked by extreme levels of criminal activity, disease and mass death, infanticide, and cannibalism. It had consequences for Church, State, European society and future calamities to follow in the 14th century. Medieval Britainwas afflicted by 95 famines,^[91] and France suffered the effects of 75 or more in the same period.^[92] The famine of 1315–6 may have killed at least 10% of England's population, or at least 500,000 people.^[93]

An engraving from Goya's Disasters of War, showing starving women, doubtless inspired by the terrible famine that struck Madrid in 1811-1812.

The 17th century was a period of change for the food producers of Europe. For centuries they had lived primarily as subsistence farmers in a feudal system. They had obligations to their lords, who had suzerainty over the land tilled by their peasants. The lord of a fief would take a portion of the crops and livestock produced during the year. Peasants generally tried to minimize the amount of work they had to put into agricultural food production. Their lords rarely pressured them to increase their food output, except when the population started to increase, at which time the peasants were likely to increase the production themselves. More land would be added to cultivation until there was no more available and the peasants were forced to take up more labour-intensive methods of production. Nonetheless, as long as they had enough to feed their families, they preferred to spend their time doing other things, such as hunting, fishing or relaxing. It was not necessary to produce more than they could eat or store themselves.

During the 17th century, continuing the trend of previous centuries, there was an increase inmarket-driven agriculture. Farmers, people who rented land in order to make a profit off of the product of the land, employing wage labour, became increasingly common, particularly in western Europe. It was in their interest to produce as much as possible on their land in order to sell it to areas that demanded that product. They produced guaranteed surpluses of their crop every year if they could. Farmers paid their labourers in money, increasing the commercialization of rural society. This commercialization had a profound impact on the behaviour of peasants. Farmers were interested in increasing labour input into their lands, not decreasing it as subsistence peasants were.

Subsistence peasants were also increasingly forced to commercialize their activities because of increasing taxes. Taxes that had to be paid to central governments in money forced the peasants to produce crops to sell. Sometimes they produced industrial crops, but they would find ways to increase their production in order to meet both their subsistence requirements as well as their tax obligations. Peasants also used the new money to purchase manufactured goods. The agricultural and social developments encouraging increased food production were gradually taking place throughout the sixteenth century, but were spurred on more directly by the adverse conditions for food production that Europe found itself in the early seventeenth century — there was a general cooling trend in the Earth's temperature starting at the beginning end of the sixteenth century.

The 1590s saw the worst famines in centuries across all of Europe, except in certain areas, notably the Netherlands. Famine had been relatively rare during the 16th century. The economy and population had grown steadily as subsistence populations tend to when there is an extended period of relative peace (most of the time). Subsistence peasant populations will almost always increase when possible since the peasants will try to spread the work to as many hands as possible. Although peasants in areas of high population density, such as northern Italy, had learned to increase the yields of their lands through techniques such as promiscuous culture, they were still quite vulnerable to famines, forcing them to work their land even more intensively.

Famine is a very destabilizing and devastating occurrence. The prospect of starvation led people to take desperate measures. When scarcity of food became apparent to peasants, they would sacrifice long-term prosperity for short-term survival. They would kill their draught animals, leading to lowered production in subsequent years. They would eat their seed corn, sacrificing next year's crop in the hope that more seed could be found. Once those means had been exhausted, they would take to the road in search of food. They migrated to the cities where merchants from other areas would be more likely to sell their food, as cities had a stronger purchasing power than did rural areas. Cities also administered relief programs and bought grain for their populations so that they could keep order. With the confusion and desperation of the migrants, crime would often follow them. Many peasants resorted to banditry in order to acquire enough to eat.

One famine would often lead to difficulties in following years because of lack of seed stock or disruption of routine, or perhaps because of less-available labour. Famines were often interpreted as signs of God's displeasure. They were seen as the removal, by God, of His gifts to the people of the Earth. Elaborate religious processions and rituals were made to prevent God's wrath in the form of famine.

The great famine of the 1590s began the period of famine and decline in the 17th century. The price of grain, all over Europe was high, as was the population. Various types of people were vulnerable to the succession of bad harvests that occurred throughout the 1590s in different regions. The increasing number of wage labourers in the countryside were vulnerable because they had no food of their own, and their meager living was not enough to purchase the expensive grain of a bad-crop year. Town labourers were also at risk because their wages would be insufficient to cover the cost of grain, and, to make matters worse, they often received less money in bad-crop years since the disposable income of the wealthy was spent on grain. Often, unemployment would be the result of the increase in grain prices, leading to ever-increasing numbers of urban poor.

All areas of Europe were badly affected by the famine in these periods, especially rural areas. The Netherlands was able to escape most of the damaging effects of the famine, though the 1590s were still difficult years there. Actual famine did not occur, for the Amsterdam grain trade [with the Baltic] guaranteed that there would always be something to eat in the Netherlands although hunger was prevalent.

The Netherlands had the most commercialized agriculture in all of Europe at this time, growing many industrial crops, such as flax, hemp, and hops. Agriculture became increasingly specialized and efficient. As a result, productivity and wealth increased, allowing the Netherlands to maintain a steady food supply. By the 1620s, the economy was even more developed, so the country was able to avoid the hardships of that period of famine with even greater impunity.

The years around 1620 saw another period of famines sweep across Europe. These famines were generally less severe than the famines of twenty-five years earlier, but they were nonetheless quite serious in many areas. Perhaps the worst famine since 1600, the great famine inFinland in 1696, killed one-third of the population. [3]PDF (589 KiB)

Two massive famines struck France between 1693 and 1710, killing over two million people. In both cases the impact of harvest failure was exacerbated by wartime demands on the food supply.^[94]

As late as the 1690s, Scotland experienced famine which reduced the population of parts of Scotland by at least 15%.^[95]

The famine of 1695–96 killed roughly 10% of Norway's population.^[96] At least nine severe harvest failures were recorded in the Scandinavian countries between 1740 and 1800, each resulting in a substantial rise of the death rate.^[97]

The period of 1740–43 saw frigid winters and summer droughts which led to famine across Europe leading to a major spike in mortality. (cited in Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts, 281) The freezing winter of 1740-41, which led to widespread famine in northern Europe, may owe its origins to a volcanic eruption.^[98]

The Great Famine, which lasted from 1770 until 1771, killed about one tenth of Czech lands' population, or 250,000 inhabitants, and radicalized countrysides leading to peasant uprisings.^[99]

Other areas of Europe have known famines much more recently. France saw famines as recently as the nineteenth century. Famine still occurred in eastern Europe during the 20th century.

The frequency of famine can vary with climate changes. For example, during the little ice age of the 15th century to the 18th century, European famines grew more frequent than they had been during previous centuries.

Because of the frequency of famine in many societies, it has long been a chief concern of governments and other authorities. In pre-industrial Europe, preventing famine, and ensuring timely food supplies, was one of the chief concerns of many governments, which employed various tools to alleviate famines, including price controls, purchasing stockpiles of food from other areas, rationing, and regulation of production. Most governments were concerned by famine because it could lead to revolt and other forms of social disruption.

Famine returned to the Netherlands during World War II in what was known as the Hongerwinter. It was the last famine of Western Europe, in which approximately 30,000 people died of starvation. Some other areas of Europe also experienced famine at the same time.

[edit]Italy

The harvest failures were devastating for the northern Italian economy. The economy of the area had recovered well from the previous famines, but the famines from 1618 to 1621 coincided because of a period of war in the area. The economy did not recover fully for centuries. There were serious famines in the late-1640s and less severe ones in the 1670s throughout northern Italy.

In northern Italy, a report of 1767 noted that there had been famine in 111 of the previous 316 years (i.e. the period 1451-1767) and only sixteen good harvests.^[100]

According to Stephen L. Dyson and Robert J. Rowland, "The Jesuits of Cagliari [in Sardinia] recorded years during the late 1500s "of such hunger and so sterile that the majority of the people could sustain life only with wild ferns and other weeds" ... During the terrible famine of 1680, some 80,000 persons, out of a total population of 250,000, are said to have died, and entire villages were devastated..."^[101]

[edit]England

From 1536 England began legislating Poor Laws which put a legal responsibility on the rich, at a parish level, to maintain the poor of that parish. English agriculture lagged behind the Netherlands, but by 1650 their agricultural industry was commercialized on a wide scale. The last peace-time famine in England was in 1623–24.^[93] There were still periods of hunger, as in the Netherlands, but there were no more famines as such. Rising population levels continued to put a strain on food security, despite potatoes becoming increasingly important in the diet of the poor. On balance, potatoes increased food security in England where they never replaced bread as the staple of the poor. Climate conditions were never likely to simultaneously be catastrophic for both the wheat and potato crops.

[edit]Iceland

According to Bryson (1974), there were thirty-seven famine years in Iceland between 1500 and 1804.^[102]

In 1783 the volcano Laki in south-central Iceland erupted. The lava caused little direct damage, but ash and sulfur dioxide spewed out over most of the country, causing three-quarters of the island's livestock to perish. In the following famine, around ten thousand people died, one-fifth of the population of Iceland. [Asimov, 1984, 152-153]

Depiction of victims of the Great Faminein Ireland, 1845-1849

Iceland was also hit by a potato famine between 1862 and 1864. Lesser known than the Irish potato famine, the Icelandic potato famine was caused by the same blight that ravaged most of Europe during the 1840s. About 5 percent of Iceland's population died during the famine.

[edit]Finland

The country suffered from severe famines, and that of 1696–1697 may have killed a third of the population.^[103] The Finnish famine of 1866–1868 killed 15% of the population.

[edit]Ireland

See also: Great Irish famine

The Great Famine in Ireland, 1845–1849, was in no small part the result of policies of the Whiggovernment of the United Kingdom under Lord Russell.^[104][105] The land in Ireland was owned mostly by Anglican people of English descent, who did not identify culturally or ethnically with the Irish population. The landlords were known as the Anglo-Irish and felt no compulsion to use their political clout to aid their tenants and in fact saw it as an opportunity to claim more land for high profit cattle grazing as the Irish died off or left. The British government's response to the food crisis in Ireland was to leave the matter solely to market forces to decide. In reality, since the British had forcefully taken the land from the native Irish over the centuries the Irish had little means to support themselves beyond the meager amount of land set aside for the potato crop. The potato had been grown by the Irish as it is a very high calorie per acre yield. Even if the Irish were able to obtain other crops they would not have been enough to support the population on the small amount of land allocated to them, only a potato crop could do that. Ireland was a net food exporter during the famine with the British army guarding ports and food depots from the starving crowds.

The immediate effect was 1,000,000 dead and another 2,000,000 refugees fleeing to Britain, Australia and the United States.^[106] After the famine passed, infertility caused by famine, diseases and emigration spurred by the landlord-run economy being so thoroughly undermined, caused the population to enter into a 100-year decline. It was not until the 1970s (half a century after most of Ireland became independent) that the population of Ireland, then at half of what it had been before the famine, began to rise again. This period of Irish population decline after the famine was at a time when the European population doubled and the English population increased fourfold. This left the country severely underpopulated. The population decline continued in parts of the country worst affected by the famine (the west coast) until the 1990s - 150 years after the famine. Before the Hunger, Ireland's population was over half of England's. Today it is less than 10%. The population of Ireland is 5 million but there are over 80 million more people of Irish descent outside of Ireland. That is sixteen times the population of Ireland.

Starving Russian children during the famine. Circa 1922.

[edit]Russia and the USSR

Main article: Famines in Russia and USSR

According to Scott and Duncan (2002), "Eastern Europe experienced more than 150 recorded famines between AD 1500 and 1700 and there were 100 hunger years and 121 famine years in Russia between AD 971 and 1974."^[107]

Droughts and famines in Imperial Russia are known to have happened every 10 to 13 years, with average droughts happening every 5 to 7 years. Eleven major famines scourged Russia between 1845 and 1922, one of the worst being the famine of 1891–2.^[108] Famines continued in the Soviet era, the most notorious being the Holodomor in various parts of the country, especially the Volga, and the Ukrainian and northern Kazakh SSR's during the winter of 1932–1933. The Soviet famine of 1932–1933 is nowadays reckoned to have cost an estimated 6 million lives.^[109] The last major famine in the USSR happened in 1947 due to the severe drought and the mismanagement of grain reserves by the Soviet government.^[110]

The 872 days of the Siege of Leningrad (1941–1944) caused unparalleled famine in the Leningrad region through disruption of utilities, water, energy and food supplies. This resulted in the deaths of about one million people.^[111]

[edit]Famine in Latin America

The pre-Columbian Americans often dealt with severe food shortages and famines.^[112] The persistent drought around 850 AD coincided with the collapse of Classic Maya civilization, and the famine of One Rabbit (A.D. 1454) was a major catastrophe in Mexico.^[113]

Brazil's 1877–78 Grande Seca (Great Drought), the most severe ever recorded in Brazil,^[114] caused approximately half a million deaths.^[115]The one from 1915 was devastating too.^[116]

[edit]See also

Agriculture and population limits Atmit a porridge used to fight famine Climate change and agriculture Drought Famine Early Warning Systems Network Food price crisis Food security Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Global Hunger Index

Malthusian catastrophe Overpopulation Peak food Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth Starvation Subsistence crisis World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (monthly report) World Vision Famine events

Case studies:

• List of famines
• Dutch famine of 1944
• Great Leap Forward
• Holodomor (Ukrainian Famine)
• Famines in Ethiopia
• 2010 Sahel famine
• Medieval demography
• Year Without a Summer

[edit]Footnotes

1. ^ Sen is known for his assertion that famines do not occur in democracies in much the same way that Adam Smith is associated with the "invisible hand" and Joseph Schumpeter with "creative destruction".^[46]

[edit]References

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5. ^ "Obama enlists major powers to aid poor farmers with $15 billion", New York Times, 9 Jul 2009
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} "Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts",New York Times, 2 Dec 2007
7. ^ Jan Borlaug, "Forgotten benefactor of humanity", The Atlantic
8. ^ This Day in History 1941: Siege of Leningrad begins
9. ^ Blix & Svensk näringsforskning 1971.
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11. ^ Scrimshaw 1987.
12. ^ Ravallion 1996, p. 2.
13. ^ Cuny 1999.
14. ^ citation needed
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16. ^ ^a b c d Chaudhari 1984, p. 135.
17. ^ Ravallion 1996, p. 1.
18. ^ "Poor studies will always be with us", The Telegraph
19. ^ Don O'Reilly, "Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc and the Siege of Orléans", TheHistoryNet.com
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21. ^ ^a b "Africa may be able to feed only 25% of its population by 2025", News, Mongabay
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23. ^ "The global grain bubble", Christian Science Monitor
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27. ^ Already we have riots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come?
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31. ^ Eating Fossil Fuels | EnergyBulletin.net
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35. ^ The Food Bubble Economy
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39. ^ Big melt threatens millions, says UN
40. ^ Glaciers melting at alarming speed
41. ^ Ganges, Indus may not survive: climatologists
42. ^ Himalaya glaciers melt unnoticed
43. ^ Rising food prices curb aid to global poor
44. ^http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000206/index.html
45. ^ The limits of a Green Revolution?
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47. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/world/africa/10rice.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin In Africa, prosperity from seeds falls short
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49. ^ Zambia: fertile but hungry
50. ^ The Hidden Hinger
51. ^ Andrew S. Natsios (Administrator U.S. Agency for International Development)
52. ^ Let them eat micronutrients
53. ^ memorandum to former Representative Steve Solarz (United States, Democratic Party, New York) - July 1994
54. ^ A model of African food aid is now in trouble
55. ^ Len Milich: Anthropogenic Desertification vs 'Natural' Climate Trends
56. ^ The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922. Cambridge University Press. 2005. p. 115. ISBN 0521839106.
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62. ^ El Niño and Drought Early Warning in Ethiopia
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64. ^ See, for example, Andrey Korotayev and Daria KhaltourinaSecular Cycles and Millennial Trends in Africa. Moscow: Russia, 2006. ISBN 5-484-00560-4
65. ^ "Somalia Faces Famine as al-Qaida Threat Halts International Aid". PBS NewsHour. July 22, 2011.
66. ^ http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/12566
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68. ^ Shawcross, William, The Quality of Mercy: Cambodia, Holocaust and Modern Conscience, Touchstone, 1985, pp. 115–116.
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70. ^ Kaplan, Robert D., The Ends of the Earth, Vintage, 1996, p. 406.
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78. ^ Woo-Cummings, 2002)
79. ^ Famine - Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911
80. ^ ^a b Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts. 1. Verso, 2000. ISBN 1-85984-739-0 pg 7
81. ^ Craig A. Lockard (2010). "Societies, Networks, and Transitions, Volume 3". Cengage Learning. p.610. ISBN 143908534X
82. ^ The Architect of India's Second Liberation
83. ^ "Local agrarian societies in colonial India: Japanese perspectives.". Kaoru Sugihara, Peter Robb, Haruka Yanagisawa (1996). p 312.
84. ^ Suraiya Faroqhi, Halil İnalcık, Donald Quataert (1997). "An economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire". Cambridge University Press. p.789. ISBN 0521574552
85. ^ Yeroushalmi, David (2009). The Jews of Iran in the nineteenth century: aspects of history, community . BRILL. p. 327.ISBN 9004152881.
86. ^ Christoffel Anthonie Olivier Nieuwenhuijze (1977). "Commoners, climbers and notables: a sampler of studies on social ranking in the Middle East". Brill Archive ISBN. p.213. ISBN 9004050655
87. ^ LRB • Bruce Cumings: We look at it and see ourselves
88. ^ http://mcfarland.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,8,10;journal,2,9;linkingpublicationresults,1:120199,1North Korea
89. ^ "Vietnam needs to remember famine of 1945". Mailman.anu.edu.au. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
90. ^ "The Story of Ireland". Brian Igoe (2009). p.49.
91. ^ "Poor studies will always be with us". By James Bartholomew. Telegraph. August 7. 2004.
92. ^ "Famine". Encyclopædia Britannica.
93. ^ ^a b "The savage wars of peace: England, Japan and the Malthusian trap". Alan Macfarlane (1997). p.66. ISBN 0631181172
94. ^ Ó Gráda, Cormac; Chevet, Jean-Michel (2002). "Famine And Market In Ancient Régime France". The Journal of Economic History 62 (3): 706–33. doi:10.1017/S0022050702001055.PMID 17494233. [1]
95. ^ Anderson, Michael (1988). Population change in North-western Europe, 1750-1850. Macmillan Education. p. 9. ISBN 0333343867.
96. ^ "Famine in Scotland: The 'Ill Years' of the 1690s". Karen Cullen,Karen J. Cullen (2010). Edinburgh University Press. p.20.ISBN 0748638873
97. ^ "The savage wars of peace: England, Japan and the Malthusian trap". Alan Macfarlane (1997). p.63. ISBN 0631181172
98. ^ "Famine: a short history". Cormac Ó Gráda (2009). Princeton University Press. p.18. ISBN 0691122377
99. ^ "The Cambridge economic history of Europe: The economic organization of early modern Europe". E. E. Rich, C. H. Wilson, M. M. Postan (1977). p.614. ISBN 0521087104
100. ^ "The savage wars of peace: England, Japan and the Malthusian trap". Alan Macfarlane (1997). p.64. ISBN 0631181172
101. ^ Dyson, Stephen L; Rowland, Robert J (2007). Archaeology and history in Sardinia from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages: shepherds, sailors & conquerors. Philadelphia: UPenn Museum of Archaeology, 2007. p. 136. ISBN 1934536024.
102. ^ "Expectations of life: a study in the demography, statistics, and history of world mortality". Henry Oliver Lancaster (1990).Springer. p.399. ISBN 0-387-97105-X
103. ^ "Finland and the Swedish Empire". Federal Research Division,Library of Congress.
104. ^ http://www.nde.state.ne.us/ss/irish/irish_pf.html
105. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=KxrnvU39ZpoC&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=laissez-faire+famine+ireland&source=bl&ots=-vXZaLzs-X&sig=gGDNLeoLATy0sSk4NPHOi9Z2yDc&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result
106. ^ Rubinstein, W. D. (2004). Genocide: a history. Pearson Education. p. 85. ISBN 0582506018.
107. ^ Susan Scott,Christopher John Duncan (2002). "Demography and nutrition: evidence from historical and contemporary populations". John Wiley and Sons. p.45. ISBN 0632059834
108. ^ "The Dimension of Famine" (PDF). Alan Macfarlane.
109. ^ Stéphane Courtois, Mark Kramer. Livre noir du Communisme: crimes, terreur, répression. Harvard University Press, 1999. p.206. ISBN 0-674-07608-7
110. ^ Michael Ellman, The 1947 Soviet Famine and the Entitlement Approach to Famines Cambridge Journal of Economics 24 (2000): 603-630.
111. ^ Last Battle of Siege of Leningrad Re-Enacted, The St. Petersburg Times, January 29, 2008
112. ^ "Technology, disease, and colonial conquests, sixteenth to eighteenth centuries: essays reappraising the guns and germs theories". George Raudzens (2003). BRILL. p.190. ISBN 0391042068
113. ^ "The great Maya droughts: water, life, and death". Richardson Benedict Gill (2000). UNM Press. p.123. ISBN 0826327745
114. ^ "Drought, Smallpox, and Emergence of Leishmania braziliensis in Northeastern Brazil". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
115. ^ "Ó Gráda, C.: Famine: A Short History". Princeton University Press.
116. ^ "Inland fishery enhancements". FAO.

[edit]Sources & further reading

• Asimov, Isaac, Asimov's New Guide to Science, pp. 152–153, Basic Books, Inc. : 1984.
• Bhatia, B.M. (1985) Famines in India: A study in Some Aspects of the Economic History of India with Special Reference to Food Problem, Delhi: Konark Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
• Chaudhari, B. B (1984). Desai, Meghnad; Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber; Rudra, Ashok. eds. Agrarian power and agricultural productivity in South Asia. 1. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520053694. Retrieved October 1, 2010
• Davis, Mike, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World, London, Verso, 2002 (Excerpt online.)
• Dutt, Romesh C. Open Letters to Lord Curzon on Famines and Land Assessments in India, first published 1900, 2005 edition by Adamant Media Corporation, Elibron Classics Series, ISBN 1-4021-5115-2.
• Dutt, Romesh C. The Economic History of India under early British Rule, first published 1902, 2001 edition by Routledge, ISBN 0-415-24493-5
• Encyclopaedia Britannica (2010). "Food-availability decline". Retrieved October 1, 2010
• Ganson, Nicholas, The Soviet Famine of 1946-47 in Global and Historical Perspective. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. (ISBN 0-230-61333-0)
• Genady Golubev and Nikolai Dronin, Geography of Droughts and Food Problems in Russia (1900–2000), Report of the International Project on Global Environmental Change and Its Threat to Food and Water Security in Russia (February, 2004).
• Greenough, Paul R., Prosperity and Misery in Modern Bengal. The Famine of 1943-1944, Oxford University Press 1982
• LeBlanc, Steven, Constant battles: the myth of the peaceful, noble savage, St. Martin's Press (2003) argues that recurring famines have been the major cause of warfare since paleolithic times. ISBN 0-312-31089-7
• Lassa, Jonatan., "Famine, drought, malnutrition: Defining and fighting hunger." http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2006/07/03/famine-drought-malnutrition-defining-and-fighting-hunger.html. 3 July 2006.
• Middlebrook, Peter, When the Public Works: Generating Employment and Social Protection in Ethiopia, Lambert Academic Publishing. 2009. ISBN 978-3-8383-0672-8
• Li, Lillian M. Fighting Famine in North China: State, Market, and Environmental Decline, 1690s-1990s (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007 ISBN 9780804753043.
• Massing, Michael (2003). Does Democracy Avert Famine?. The New York Times. Retrieved September 27, 2010
• Mead, Margaret. "The Changing Significance of Food." American Scientist. (March–April 1970). pp. 176–189.
• Ray, James Arthur; Sivertsen, Linda (2008). Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want. Hyperion.ISBN 9781401322649
• Moon, William. "Origins of the Great North Korean Famine." North Korean Review [4]
• Sen, Amartya, Poverty and Famines : An Essay on Entitlements and Deprivation, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1982 via Questia via Oxford Press
• Shipton, Parker (1990). "African Famines and Food Security: Anthropological Perspectives". Annual Review of Anthropology 19: 353–394. doi:10.1146/annurev.an.19.100190.002033.
• Srivastava, H.C., The History of Indian Famines from 1858–1918, Sri Ram Mehra and Co., Agra, 1968.
• Sommerville, Keith. Why famine stalks Africa, BBC, 2001
• Woo-Cumings, Meredith, The Political Ecology of Famine: The North Korean Catastrophe and Its LessonsPDF (807 KiB), ADB Institute Research Paper 31, January 2002.

[edit]External links

Look up famine in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Famines

• United Nations World Food Programme Hunger relief against poverty and famine
• International Food Policy Research Institute Sustainable solutions for ending hunger
• In Depth: Africa's Food Crisis, BBC News
• Fighting Hunger and poverty in Ethiopia (Geopolicity)PDF (1.48 MiB) (Peter Middlebrook)
• Overfarming African Land Is Worsening Hunger Crisis - New York Times
• The blog about the upcoming food shortage crisis
• Food Security: A Review of Literature from Ethiopia to India (Geopolicity)
• Famine Crimes in International Law. David Marcus, The American Journal of International Law, 2003.

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Categories: Incidents of cannibalism | Development studies | Famines | Poverty | Population

Somalia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Somali Republic Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya جمهورية الصومال‎ Jumhūriyyat as-Sūmāl‎
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Soomaaliyeey toosoo Somalia, Wake Up
Capital (and largest city)		Mogadishu 2°02′N 45°21′E
Official language(s)		Somali, Arabic[1][2]
Ethnic groups		Somalis (85%),Benadiris, Bantus and other non-Somalis (15%)[2]
Demonym		Somali;[2] Somalian[3]
Government		Coalition government
-	President	Sharif Sheikh Ahmed
-	Prime Minister	Abdiweli Mohamed Ali
Formation
-	British Somaliland	1884
-	Italian Somaliland	1889
-	Union and independence	1 July 1960
Area
-	Total	637,657 km2 (43rd) 246,200 sq mi
Population
-	2010 estimate	9,359,000[4] (89th)
-	Density	14/km2 (209) 36/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2009 estimate
-	Total	$5.731 billion[2] (155th)
-	Per capita	$600[2] (224th)
HDI (2009)		N/A (Not ranked)
Currency		Somali shilling (SOS)
Time zone		EAT (UTC+3)
-	Summer (DST)	not observed (UTC+3)
Drives on the		right
ISO 3166 code		SO
Internet TLD		.so
Calling code		252
1	Transitional Federal Charter of the Somali Republic

Somalia ( /soʊˈmɑːliə/ soh-mah-lee-ə; Somali: Soomaaliya; Arabic: الصومال‎ aṣ-Ṣūmāl), officially the Somali Republic (Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, Arabic: جمهورية الصومال‎Jumhūriyyat aṣ-Ṣūmāl) and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under communist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory.^[2] The internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government controls only a small part of the country. Somalia has been characterized as a failed state^{[5][6][7][8][9]} and is one of the poorest^[10] and most violent states in the world.^[5][11][12]

Somalia lies in the eastern-most part of Africa. It is bordered by Djibouti to the northwest,Kenya to the southwest, the Gulf of Aden with Yemen to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Ethiopia to the west. It has the longest coastline on the continent,^[13] and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands.^[2] Hot conditions prevail year-round, along with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall.^[14]

In antiquity, Somalia was an important centre for commerce with the rest of the ancient world,^[15][16] and according to most scholars, Somalia is where the ancient Land of Punt was situated.^[17][18] During the Middle Ages, several powerful Somali empires dominated the regional trade, including the Ajuuraan State, the Sultanate of Adal, the Warsangali Sultanateand the Gobroon Dynasty. In the late nineteenth century, the British and Italians gained control of parts of the coast, and established British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland^[19] In the interior, Muhammad Abdullah Hassan's Dervish State successfully repulsed the British Empirefour times and forced it to retreat to the coastal region,^[20] but the Dervishes were finally defeated in 1920 by British airpower.^[21] Italy acquired full control of their parts of the region in 1927. This occupation lasted until 1941, when it was replaced by a British military administration. Northern Somalia would remain a protectorate, while southern Somalia became a trusteeship. 1960 saw the union of the two regions into the independent Somali Republic under a civilian government.^[22] Mohamed Siad Barre seized power in 1969 and established theSomali Democratic Republic. In 1991, Barre's government collapsed as the Somali Civil Warbroke out.

Since 1991, no central government has controlled the entirety of the country, despite several attempts to establish a unified central government.^[23] The northwestern part of the country has been relatively stable under the self-declared, but unrecognized, sovereign state ofSomaliland.^[24] The self-governing region of Puntland covers the northeast of the country. It declares itself to be autonomous, but not independent from Somalia.^[2] The Islamist Al-Shabaabcontrols a large part of the south of the country. Without a central government, Somalia's inhabitants subsequently reverted to local forms of conflict resolution, either civil, Islamic, orcustomary law.^[2] The internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government controls only parts of the capital and some territory in the centre of the nation, but has reestablished national institutions such as the Military of Somalia, and is working towards eventual national elections in 2011, when the interim government's mandate expires.^[25][26] During the two decades of war and lack of government, Somalia has maintained an informal economy, based mainly onlivestock, remittance/money transfer companies, and telecommunications.^[2][27]

Contents  [hide] 1 History 1.1 Prehistory 1.2 Antiquity and classical era 1.3 Birth of Islam and the Middle Ages 1.4 Early modern era and the Scramble for Africa 1.5 Independence 1.6 Communist rule 1.7 Somali Civil War 2 Politics 2.1 Transitional Federal Institutions 2.2 Islamic Courts Union and Ethiopian intervention 2.3 Coalition government 2.4 Reforms 2.5 New government 3 Law 3.1 Civil law 3.2 Shari'a 3.3 Xeer 4 Regions and districts 5 Geography 5.1 Climate 6 Health 7 Education 8 Economy 8.1 Payment system 8.2 Energy 9 Telecommunications and media 10 Military 11 Environment 12 Demographics 12.1 Languages 12.2 Religion 13 Culture 13.1 Cuisine 13.2 Music 13.3 Literature 13.4 Architecture 14 See also 15 References 16 Bibliography 17 External links

History

Main articles: History of Somalia and Maritime history of Somalia

History of Somalia
Ancient
Laas Geel Culture
Kingdom of Punt
Malaoites  · Oponeans
Mosyllonians
Medieval
Kingdom of Ifat
Adal Sultanate
Ajuuraan Empire
Gobroon Dynasty
Gerad Dynasty
Modern
Sultanate of Hobyo
Dervish State
Italian Somaliland
British Somaliland
Aden Adde Administration
Shermarke Administration
Communist rule
Recent History
Somali maritime history

Prehistory

Ancient rock art depicting acamel.

Somalia has been inhabited since the Palaeolithic period. Cave paintings said to date back to 9000 BC have been found in the northern part of the country.^[28] The most famous of these is theLaas Geel complex, which contains some of the earliest known rock art on the African continent. Undeciphered inscriptions have been found beneath each of the rock paintings.^[29] During the Stone Age, the Doian culture and the Hargeisan culture flourished here with their respective industries and factories.^[30]

The oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to 4th millennium BC.^[31]The stone implements from the Jalelo site in northern Somalia were characterized in 1909 as "the most important link in evidence of the universality in palaeolithic times between the East and the West".^[32]

Antiquity and classical era

Main article: Architecture of Somalia

The Silk Road extending from southernEurope through Arabia, Somalia, Egypt,Persia, India and Java until it reaches China.

Ancient pyramidal structures, tombs, ruined cities andstone walls such as the Wargaade Wall littered in Somalia are evidence of an ancient sophisticated civilization that once thrived in the Somali peninsula.^[33] The findings of archaeological excavations and research in Somalia show that this civilization had an ancient writing system that remains undeciphered,^[34] and enjoyed a lucrative trading relationship with Ancient Egypt and Mycenaean Greecesince at least the second millennium BC, which supports evidence of Somalia being the ancient Land of Punt.^[35] The Puntites "traded not only in their own produce of incense,ebony and short-horned cattle, but also in goods from other neighboring regions, including gold, ivory and animal skins."^[36] According to the temple reliefs at Deir el-Bahari, the Land of Punt was ruled at that time by King Parahu and Queen Ati.^[37]

Ancient Somalis domesticated the camel somewhere between the third millennium and second millennium BC from where it spread to Ancient Egypt and North Africa.^[38] In the classical period, the city states of Mossylon, Opone, Malao, Mundus and Tabae in Somalia developed a lucrative trade network connecting with merchants from Phoenicia, Ptolemaic Egypt, Greece, Parthian Persia, Saba, Nabataeaand the Roman Empire. They used the ancient Somali maritime vessel known as the beden to transport their cargo.

Ruins of Qa'ableh.

After the Roman conquest of the Nabataean Empire and the Roman naval presence at Aden to curb piracy, Arab and Somali merchants by agreement barred Indian ships from trading in the free port cities of the Arabian peninsula^[39] to protect the interests of Somali and Arab merchants in the extremely lucrative ancient Red Sea–Mediterranean Sea commerce.^[40] However, Indian merchants continued to trade in the port cities of the Somali peninsula, which was free from Roman interference.^[41]

Ancient cairns in Qombo'ul.

The Indian merchants for centuries brought large quantities of cinnamon from Sri Lanka and Indonesia to Somalia and Arabia. This is said to have been the best kept secret of the Arab and Somali merchants in their trade with the Roman and Greek world. The Romans and Greeks believed the source of cinnamon to have been the Somali peninsula, but in reality, the highly valued product was brought to Somalia by way of Indian ships.^[42] Through collusive agreement by Somali and Arab traders, Indian/Chinese cinnamon was also exported for far higher prices to North Africa, the Near East and Europe, which made the cinnamon trade a very profitable revenue generator, especially for the Somali merchants through whose hands large quantities were shipped across ancient sea and land routes.^[40]

Birth of Islam and the Middle Ages

Main articles: Adal Sultanate, Ajuuraan State, and Warsangali Sultanate

Ruins of the Adal Sultanate in Zeila.

The history of Islam in the Horn of Africa is as old as the religion itself. The early persecutedMuslims fled to the Axumite port city of Zeila in modern day Somalia to seek protection from theQuraysh at the court of the Axumite Emperor in present-day Ethiopia. Some of the Muslims that were granted protection are said to have settled in several parts of the Horn of Africa to promote the religion.

The victory of the Muslims over the Quraysh in the 7th century had a significant impact on Somalia's merchants and sailors, as their Arab trading partners had then all adopted Islam, and the major trading routes in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea came under the sway of theMuslim Caliphs. Through commerce, Islam spread amongst the Somali population in the coastal cities of Somalia. Instability in the Arabian peninsula saw several migrations of Arab families to Somalia's coastal cities, who then contributed another significant element to the growing popularity of Islam in the Somali peninsula.

13th century Fakr ad-Din mosque

Mogadishu became the center of Islam on the East African coast, and Somali merchants established a colony in Mozambique to extract gold from the Monomopatan mines in Sofala. In northern Somalia, Adal was in its early stages a small trading community established by the newly converted Horn African Muslim merchants, who were predominantly Somali according toArab and Somali chronicles.

The century between 1150 and 1250 marked a decisive turn in the role of Islam in Somali history.Yaqut al-Hamawi and later Ibn Said noted that the Berbers (Somalis) were a prosperous Muslim nation during that period. The Adal Sultanate was now the center of a commercial empire stretching from Cape Guardafui to Hadiya. The Adalites then came under the influence of the expanding Horn African Ifat Sultanate, and prospered under its patronage.

The capital of Ifat was Zeila, situated in northern present-day Somalia, from where the Ifat army marched to conquer the ancient Kingdom of Shoa in 1270. This conquest ignited a rivalry for supremacy between the Christian Solomonids and the Muslim Ifatites that resulted in several devastating wars, and ultimately ended in a Solomonic victory over the Kingdom of Ifat after the death of the popular Sultan Sa'ad ad-Din II in Zeila by Dawit II. Sa'ad ad-Din II's family was subsequently given safe haven at the court of the King of Yemen, where his sons regrouped and planned their revenge on the Solomonids.

Model of a medieval Mogadishan ship.

During the Age of the Ajuuraans, the sultanates and republics of Merca, Mogadishu, Barawa,Hobyo and their respective ports flourished and had a lucrative foreign commerce, with ships sailing to and coming from Arabia, India, Venetia,^[43] Persia, Egypt, Portugal and as far away asChina. Vasco da Gama, who passed by Mogadishu in the 15th century, noted that it was a large city with houses several storeys high and large palaces in its centre, in addition to many mosques with cylindrical minarets.^[44]

In the 16th century, Duarte Barbosa noted that many ships from the Kingdom of Cambaya in modern-day India sailed to Mogadishu with cloth and spices, for which they in return received gold,wax and ivory. Barbosa also highlighted the abundance of meat, wheat, barley, horses, and fruit on the coastal markets, which generated enormous wealth for the merchants.^[45] Mogadishu, the center of a thriving textile industry known as toob benadir (specialized for the markets in Egypt, among other places^[46]), together with Merca and Barawa, also served as a transit stop for Swahilimerchants from Mombasa and Malindi and for the gold trade from Kilwa.^[47] Jewish merchants from the Hormuz brought their Indian textile and fruit to the Somali coast in exchange for grain and wood.^[48]

Trading relations were established with Malacca in the 15th century,^[49] with cloth, ambergris and porcelain being the main commodities of the trade.^[50] Giraffes, zebras and incense were exported to the Ming Empire of China, which established Somali merchants as leaders in the commerce between the Asia and Africa^[51] and influenced the Chinese language with the Somali language in the process. Hindu merchants from Surat and Southeast African merchants from Pate, seeking to bypass both the Portuguese blockade and Omani meddling, used the Somali ports of Merca and Barawa (which were out of the two powers' jurisdiction) to conduct their trade in safety and without interference.^[52]

Early modern era and the Scramble for Africa

Main articles: Dervish State, Gobroon Dynasty, and Sultanate of Hobyo

17th century mosque in Hafun, Somalia.

In the early modern period, successor states of the Adal and Ajuuraan empires began to flourish in Somalia. These included the Warsangali Sultanate, the Bari Dynasties, the Gobroon Dynasty(Geledi Sultanate), and the Sultanate of Hobyo. They continued the tradition of castle-building and seaborne trade established by previous Somali empires.

Sultan Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim, the third Sultan of the House of Gobroon, started the golden age of the Gobroon Dynasty. His army came out victorious during the Bardheere Jihad, which restored stability in the region and revitalized the East African ivory trade. He also received presents from and had cordial relations with the rulers of neighboring and distant kingdoms such as the Omani,Witu and Yemeni Sultans.

Sultan Ibrahim's son Ahmed Yusuf succeeded him and was one of the most important figures in 19th century East Africa, receiving tribute from Omani governors and creating alliances with important Muslim families on the East African coast. In northern Somalia, the Gerad Dynasty conducted trade with Yemen and Persia and competed with the merchants of the Bari Dynasty. The Gerads and the Bari Sultans built impressive palaces, castles and fortresses and had close relations with many different empires in the Near East.

Somali soldiers board a British naval batilla.

In the late 19th century, after the Berlin Conference (1884), European powers began the Scramble for Africa, which inspired the Dervish leader Muhammad Abdullah Hassan to rally support from across the Horn of Africa and begin one of the longest colonial resistance wars ever. In several of his poems and speeches, Hassan emphasized that the British "have destroyed our religion and made our children their children" and that the Christian Ethiopians in league with the British were bent upon plundering the political and religious freedom of the Somali nation.^[53] He soon emerged as "a champion of his country's political and religious freedom, defending it against all Christian invaders."^[54]

Hassan issued a religious ordinance stipulating that any Somali national who did not accept the goal of unity of Somalia and would not fight under his leadership would be considered as kafir or gaal. He soon acquired weapons from Turkey, Sudan, and other Islamic and/or Arabian countries, and appointed ministers and advisers to administer different areas or sectors of Somalia. In addition, he gave a clarion call for Somali unity and independence, in the process organizing his forces.

Hassan's Dervish movement had an essentially military character, and the Dervish state was fashioned on the model of a Salihiya brotherhood. It was characterized by a rigid hierarchy and centralization. Though Hassan threatened to drive the Christians into the sea, he executed the first attack by launching his first major military offensive with his 1500 Dervish equipped with 20 modern rifles on the British soldiers stationed in the region.

Taleex was the capital of the Dervish State.

He repulsed the British in four expeditions and had relations with the Central Powers of theOttomans and the Germans. In 1920, the Dervish state collapsed after intensive aerial bombardments by Britain, and Dervish territories were subsequently turned into a protectorate.

The dawn of fascism in the early 1920s heralded a change of strategy for Italy, as the north-eastern sultanates were soon to be forced within the boundaries of La Grande Somalia according to the plan of Fascist Italy. With the arrival of Governor Cesare Maria De Vecchi on 15 December 1923, things began to change for that part of Somaliland known as Italian Somaliland. Italy had access to these areas under the successive protection treaties, but not direct rule.

The Fascist government had direct rule only over the Benadir territory. Fascist Italy, under Benito Mussolini, attacked Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935, with an aim to colonize it. The invasion was condemned by the League of Nations, but little was done to stop it or to liberate occupied Ethiopia. On August 3, 1940, Italian troops, including Somali colonial units, crossed from Ethiopia to invade British Somaliland, and by August 14, succeeded in taking Berbera from the British.

A British force, including troops from several African countries, launched the campaign in January 1941 from Kenya to liberate British Somaliland and Italian-occupied Ethiopia and conquer Italian Somaliland. By February, most of Italian Somaliland was captured and in March, British Somaliland was retaken from the sea. The British Empire forces operating in Somaliland comprised three divisions of South African, West and East African troops. They were assisted by Somali forces led by Abdulahi Hassan with Somalis of the Isaaq, Dhulbahante, andWarsangali clans prominently participating. After World War II, the number of the Italian colonists started to decrease; their numbers had dwindled to less than 10,000 in 1960.^[55]

Independence

Main article: Greater Somalia

Somali Youth Leaguemonument

Following World War II, Britain retained control of both British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland asprotectorates. In November 1949, the United Nations granted Italy trusteeship of Italian Somaliland, but only under close supervision and on the condition — first proposed by the Somali Youth League (SYL) and other nascent Somali political organizations, such as Hizbia Digil Mirifle Somali and the Somali National League— that Somalia achieve independence within ten years.^[56][57] British Somaliland remained a protectorate of Britain until 1960.^[58]

To the extent that Italy held the territory by UN mandate, the trusteeship provisions gave the Somalis the opportunity to gain experience in political education and self-government. These were advantages that British Somaliland, which was to be incorporated into the new Somali state, did not have. Although in the 1950s British colonial officials attempted, through various development efforts, to make up for past neglect,^{[clarification needed]} the protectorate stagnated. The disparity between the two territories in economic development and political experience would cause serious difficulties when it came time to integrate the two parts.^[59]

Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, the firstPresident of Somalia.

Meanwhile, in 1948, under pressure from their World War II alliesand to the dismay of the Somalis,^[60] the British "returned" theHaud (an important Somali grazing area that was presumably 'protected' by British treaties with the Somalis in 1884 and 1886) and the Ogaden to Ethiopia, based on a treaty they signed in 1897 in which the British ceded Somali territory to the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik in exchange for his help against plundering by Somali clans.^[61]

Britain included the proviso that the Somali nomads would retain their autonomy, but Ethiopia immediately claimed sovereignty over them.^[56] This prompted an unsuccessful bid by Britain in 1956 to buy back the Somali lands it had turned over.^[56] Britain also granted administration of the almost exclusively Somali-inhabited^[62] Northern Frontier District (NFD) to Kenyan nationalists despite an informal plebiscite demonstrating the overwhelming desire of the region's population to join the newly formed Somali Republic.^[63]

Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, Somalia's firstPrime Minister and second President.

A referendum was held in neighboring Djibouti (then known as French Somaliland) in 1958, on the eve of Somalia's independence in 1960, to decide whether or not to join the Somali Republic or to remain with France. The referendum turned out in favour of a continued association with France, largely due to a combined yes vote by the sizable Afar ethnic group and resident Europeans.^[64] There was also widespread vote rigging, with the French expelling thousands of Somalis before the referendum reached the polls.^[65] The majority of those who voted no were Somalis who were strongly in favour of joining a united Somalia, as had been proposed by Mahmoud Harbi, Vice President of the Government Council. Harbi was killed in a plane crash two years later.^[64] Djibouti finally gained its independence from France in 1977, andHassan Gouled Aptidon, a Somali who had campaigned for a yes vote in the referendum of 1958, eventually wound up as Djibouti's first president (1977–1991).^[64]

British Somaliland became independent on June 26, 1960, and the former Italian Somaliland followed suit five days later.^[66] On July 1, 1960, the two territories united to form the Somali Republic, albeit within boundaries drawn up by Italy and Britain.^[67][68] A government was formed by Abdullahi Issa, with Aden Abdullah Osman Daar as President and Abdirashid Ali Shermarke asPrime Minister, later to become President (from 1967–1969). On July 20, 1961 and through a popular referendum, the Somali people ratified a new constitution, which was first drafted in 1960.^[69] In 1967, Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal became Prime Minister, a position to which he was appointed by Shermarke. Egal would later become the President of the autonomous Somaliland region in northwestern Somalia.

On October 15, 1969, while paying a visit to the northern town of Las Anod, Somalia's then President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke was shot dead by one of his own bodyguards. His assassination was quickly followed by a military coup d'état on October 21, 1969 (the day after his funeral), in which the Somali Army seized power without encountering armed opposition — essentially a bloodless takeover. The putsch was spearheaded by Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, who at the time commanded the army.^[70]

Communist rule

Main article: Somali Democratic Republic

Alongside Barre, the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC) that assumed power after President Sharmarke's assassination was led by Major General Salaad Gabeyre Kediye and Chief of Police Jama Korshel. The SRC subsequently renamed the country the Somali Democratic Republic,^[71][72] dissolved the parliament and the Supreme Court, and suspended the constitution.^[73]

The old parliament building in Mogadishu

The revolutionary army established large-scale public works programs and successfully implemented an urban and rural literacy campaign, which helped dramatically increase the literacy rate. In addition to a nationalization program of industry and land, the new regime's foreign policy placed an emphasis on Somalia's traditional and religious links with the Arab world, eventually joining the Arab League (AL) in 1974.^[74] That same year, Barre also served as chairman of theOrganization of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor of the African Union (AU).^[75]

In July 1976, Barre's SRC disbanded itself and established in its place the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP), a one-party government based on scientific socialism and Islamic tenets. The SRSP was an attempt to reconcile the official state ideology with the official state religion by adapting Marxist precepts to local circumstances. Emphasis was placed on the Muslim principles of social progress, equality and justice, which the government argued formed the core of scientific socialism and its own accent on self-sufficiency, public participation and popular control, as well as direct ownership of the means of production. While the SRSP encouraged private investment on a limited scale, the administration's overall direction was essentially communist.^[73]

A Somali soldier poses for a photograph during the multinational joint service exercise BRIGHT STAR '85. The Somali-Soviet Unionfriendship and later partnership with the United States enabled Somalia to build the largest army on the continent.^[76]

In July 1977, the Ogaden War broke out after Barre's government sought to incorporate the predominantly Somali-inhabited Ogaden region into a Pan-Somali Greater Somalia. In the first week of the conflict, Somali armed forces took southern and central Ogaden and for most of the war, the Somali army scored continuous victories on the Ethiopian army and followed them as far as Sidamo. By September 1977, Somalia controlled 90% of the Ogaden and captured strategic cities such as Jijiga and put heavy pressure on Dire Dawa, threatening the train route from the latter city to Djibouti. After the siege of Harar, a massive unprecedented Soviet intervention consisting of 20,000 Cuban forces and several thousand Soviet experts came to the aid of Ethiopia's communist Derg regime. By 1978, the Somali troops were ultimately pushed out of the Ogaden. This shift in support by the Soviet Union motivated the Barre government to seek allies elsewhere. It eventually settled on Soviet's Cold War arch-rival, the United States, which had been courting the Somali government for some time. All in all, Somalia's initial friendship with the Soviet Union and later partnership with the United States enabled it to build the largest army in Africa.^[76]

A new constitution was promulgated in 1979 under which elections for a People's Assembly were held. However, Barre's Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party politburo continued to rule.^[72] In October 1980, the SRSP was disbanded, and the Supreme Revolutionary Council was re-established in its place.^[73] By that time, the moral authority of Barre's government had collapsed. Many Somalis had become disillusioned with life under military dictatorship. The regime was weakened further in the 1980s as the Cold War drew to a close and Somalia's strategic importance was diminished. The government became increasingly totalitarian, and resistance movements, encouraged by Ethiopia, sprang up across the country, eventually leading to theSomali Civil War. Among the militia groups were the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF),United Somali Congress (USC), Somali National Movement (SNM) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), together with the non-violent political oppositions of the Somali Democratic Movement (SDM), the Somali Democratic Alliance (SDA) and the Somali Manifesto Group (SMG).

During 1990, in the capital city of Mogadishu, the residents were prohibited from gathering publicly in groups greater than three or four. Fuel shortages caused long lines of cars at petrol stations. Inflation had driven the price of pasta, (ordinary dry Italian noodles, a staple at that time), to five U.S. dollars per kilogram. The price of khat, imported daily from Kenya, was also five U.S. dollars per standard bunch. Paper currency notes were of such low value that several bundles were needed to pay for simple restaurant meals. Coins were scattered on the ground throughout the city being too low in value to be used.

A thriving black market existed in the centre of the city as banks experienced shortages of local currency for exchange. At night, the city of Mogadishu lay in darkness. The generators used to provide electricity to the city had been sold off by the government. Close monitoring of all visiting foreigners was in effect. Harsh exchange control regulations were introduced to prevent export of foreign currency and access to it was restricted to official banks, or one of three government-operated hotels.

Although no travel restrictions were placed on foreigners, photographing many locations was banned. During the day in Mogadishu, the appearance of any government military force was extremely rare. Alleged late-night operations by government authorities, however, included "disappearances" of individuals from their homes.

Somali Civil War

Main article: Somali Civil War

Prior to the civil war, Mogadishu was known as the "White pearl of the Indian Ocean".^[77]

1991 was a time of great change for Somalia. President Barre was ousted by combined northern and southern clan-based forces, all of whom were backed and armed by Ethiopia. Following a meeting of the Somali National Movement and northern clans' elders, the northern former British portion of the country declared its independence as Somaliland in May 1991. Although de facto independent and relatively stable compared to the tumultuous south, it has not been recognized by any foreign government.^[78][79]

In January 1991, President Ali Mahdi Muhammad was selected by the manifesto group as an interim state president until a conference between all stakeholders to be held in Djibouti the following month to select a national leader. However, United Somali Congress military leader General Mohamed Farrah Aidid, the Somali National Movement leader Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur and the Somali Patriotic Movement leader Col Jess refused to recognize Mahdi as president.

This caused a split between the SNM, USC and SPM and the armed groups Manifesto, Somali Democratic Movement (SDM) and Somali National Alliance (SNA) on the one hand and within the USC forces. This led efforts to remove Barre who still claimed to be the legitimate president of Somalia. He and his armed supporters remained in the south of the country until mid 1992, causing further escalation in violence, especially in the Gedo, Bay, Bakool, Lower Shabelle, Lower Juba, and Middle Juba regions. The armed conflict within the USC devastated the Mogadishu area.

The civil war disrupted agriculture and food distribution in southern Somalia. The basis of most of the conflicts was clan allegiances and competition for resources between the warring clans. James Bishop, the United States last ambassador to Somalia, explained that there is "competition for water, pasturage, and... cattle. It is a competition that used to be fought out with arrows and sabers... Now it is fought out with AK-47s."^[80] The resulting famine (about 300,000 dead) caused the United Nations Security Council in 1992 to authorise the limited peacekeeping operation United Nations Operation in Somalia I (UNOSOM I).^[81] UNOSOM's use of force was limited to self-defense and, although originally welcomed by both sides,^[82] it was soon disregarded by the warring factions.

Propaganda leaflet depicting a white dove of peace being crushed by a fist labeled "USC/SNA" ("United Somali Congress/Somali National Alliance").

In reaction to the continued violence and the humanitarian disaster, the United States organized a military coalition with the purpose of creating a secure environment in southern Somalia for the conduct of humanitarian operations. This coalition, (Unified Task Force or UNITAF) entered Somalia in December 1992 on Operation Restore Hope and was successful in restoring order and alleviating the famine. In May 1993, most of the United States troops withdrew and UNITAF was replaced by the United Nations Operation in Somalia II (UNOSOM II).

However, Mohamed Farrah Aidid saw UNOSOM II as a threat to his power and in June 1993 his militia attacked Pakistan Army troops, attached to UNOSOM II, (see Somalia (March 1992 to February 1996)) in Mogadishu inflicting over 80 casualties. Fighting escalated until 19 American troops and more than 1,000 civilians and militia were killed in a raid in Mogadishu during October 1993.^[83][84] The UN withdrew Operation United Shield in 3 March 1995, having suffered significant casualties, and with the rule of government still not restored. In August 1996, Aidid was killed in Mogadishu.

Following the outbreak of the civil war, many of Somalia's residents left the country in search of asylum. At the end of 2009, about 678,000 were under the responsibility of the UNHCR, constituting the third largest refugee group after war-afflicted Iraq and Afghanistan, respectively. Due to renewed fighting in the southern half of the country, an estimated 132,000 people left in 2009, and another 300,000 were displaced internally.^[85] Former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali^[86] and Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, UN special envoy to Somalia^[87] have also referred to the killing of civilians in the Somalian Civil War as a "genocide".

Puntland Coast Guard officials meeting with NATO Maritime Group 1 (NATO SNMG1) representatives to discuss human intelligence gathering, capacity building and counter piracy cooperation between NATO and Puntland authorities.

A consequence of the collapse of governmental authority that accompanied the civil war has been the emergence of a significant problem with piracy in the waters off of the coast of Somalia.^[88][89]Piracy arose as a response by local fishermen from littoral towns such as Eyl, Kismayo andHarardhere to illegal fishing by foreign trawlers.^[90][91][92] An upsurge in piracy in the Gulf of Adenand the Indian Ocean has also been attributed to the effects of the December 26, 2004 tsunamithat devastated local fishing fleets and washed ashore containers filled with toxic waste that had been dumped by European fishing vessels.^[92][93] In August 2008, a multinational coalition took on the task of combating the piracy by establishing a Maritime Security Patrol Area (MSPA) within the Gulf of Aden.^[94] Additionally, the regional Puntland government in northeastern Somalia committed itself to eradicating piracy and has so far made progress in its campaign, having apprehended numerous pirates in 2010, including a prominent leader.^[95] The autonomous region's security forces also reportedly managed to force out the pirate gangs from their traditional safe havens such as Eyl and Gar'ad, with the pirates now primarily operating from Hobyo, El Danaan and Harardhere in the neighboring Galmudug region.^[96] By the first half of 2010, these increased policing efforts by Puntland government authorities on land along with international naval vessels at sea reportedly contributed to a drop in pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden from 86 a year prior to 33, forcing pirates to shift attention to other areas such as the Somali Basin and the wider Indian Ocean.^[95][97][98]

Politics

Main article: Politics of Somalia

Current political situation in Somalia

Transitional Federal Institutions

Main articles: Transitional Federal Institutions, Transitional Federal Government, andTransitional Federal Parliament

The Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs) are the key foundations of the central government of Somalia. Created in 2004, they include the Transitional Federal Charter (TFC), theTransitional Federal Government, and the Transitional Federal Parliament. The Transitional Federal Charter outlines a five-year mandate leading toward the establishment of a new constitution and a transition to a representative government after national elections.

The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is the current internationally recognized federal government of Somalia. It constitutes the executive branch of government. The TFG is the most recent attempt to restore national institutions to Somalia after the 1991 collapse of theSiad Barre regime and the ensuing Somali Civil War.^[2]

The Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP) is the parliament of Somalia. Formed in 2004, it constitutes the legislative branch of government. The TFP elects the President and Prime Minister, and has the authority to propose and pass laws. It is also in charge of governance and administration of Mogadishu. Each of the four major clans hold 61 seats, while an alliance of minority clans hold 31 seats. After an alliance with the Islamic Courts Union and other Islamist groups was formed, the Islamists were awarded 200 seats. Representatives of citizens' groups and representatives of the Somali diaspora hold 75 seats. By law, at least 12% of all representatives must be women. Members of parliament are selected through traditional clan leaders or shura councils.

Islamic Courts Union and Ethiopian intervention

See also: Battle of Mogadishu (2006), Rise of the Islamic Courts Union (2006), and War in Somalia (2006–2009)

Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, one of the founders of the Transitional Federal Government.

In 2006, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), an Islamist organization, assumed control of much of the southern part of the country and promptly imposed Shari'a law. The Transitional Federal Government sought to reestablish its authority, and, with the assistance of Ethiopian troops, African Unionpeacekeepers and air support by the United States, managed to drive out the rival ICU and solidify its rule.^[99]

On January 8, 2007, as the Battle of Ras Kamboni raged, TFG President and founder Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, a former colonel in the Somali Army and decorated war hero, entered Mogadishu for the first time since being elected to office. The government then relocated to Villa Somalia in the capital from its interim location in Baidoa. This marked the first time since the fall of the Siad Barre regime in 1991 that the federal government controlled most of the country.^[100]

Following this defeat, the Islamic Courts Union splintered into several different factions. Some of the more radical elements, including Al-Shabaab, regrouped to continue their insurgency against the TFG and oppose the Ethiopian military's presence in Somalia. Throughout 2007 and 2008, Al-Shabaab scored military victories, seizing control of key towns and ports in both central and southern Somalia. At the end of 2008, the group had captured Baidoa but not Mogadishu. By January 2009, Al-Shabaab and other militias had managed to force the Ethiopian troops to retreat, leaving behind an under-equipped African Union peacekeeping force to assist the Transitional Federal Government's troops.^[101]

Due to a lack of funding and human resources, an arms embargo that made it difficult to re-establish a national security force, and general indifference on the part of the international community, President Yusuf found himself obliged to deploy thousands of troops from Puntland to Mogadishu to sustain the battle against insurgent elements in the southern part of the country. Financial support for this effort was provided by the autonomous region's government. This left little revenue for Puntland's own security forces and civil service employees, leaving the territory vulnerable to piracy and terrorist attacks.^[102][103]

On December 29, 2008, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed announced before a united parliament in Baidoa his resignation as President of Somalia. In his speech, which was broadcast on national radio, Yusuf expressed regret at failing to end the country's seventeen year conflict as his government had mandated to do.^[104] He also blamed the international community for its failure to support the government, and said that the speaker of parliament would succeed him in office per the Charter of the Transitional Federal Government.^[105]

Coalition government

See also: Al-Shabaab, Hizbul Islam, Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a, Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, War in Somalia (2009–), and2009 timeline of the War in Somalia

The battle flag of Al-Shabaab, an Islamist group waging war against the federal government.

Between May 31 and June 9, 2008, representatives of Somalia's federal government and the moderate Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) group of Islamist rebels participated in peace talks in Djibouti brokered by the former United Nations Special Envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah. The conference ended with a signed agreement calling for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops in exchange for the cessation of armed confrontation. Parliament was subsequently expanded to 550 seats to accommodate ARS members, which then elected Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the former ARS chairman, to office. President Sharif shortly afterwards appointed Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, the son of slain former President Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, as the nation's new Prime Minister.^[2]

Embassy of Somalia in Paris,France.

With the help of a small team of African Union troops, the coalition government also began a counteroffensive in February 2009 to assume full control of the southern half of the country. To solidify its rule, the TFG formed an alliance with the Islamic Courts Union, other members of theAlliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, and Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a, a moderate Sufi militia.^[106]Furthermore, Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, the two main Islamist groups in opposition, began to fight amongst themselves in mid-2009.^[107]

As a truce, in March 2009, Somalia's coalition government announced that it would re-implement Shari'a as the nation's official judicial system.^[108] However, conflict continued in the southern and central parts of the country. Within months, the coalition government had gone from holding about 70% of south-central Somalia's conflict zones, territory which it had inherited from the previous Yusuf administration, to losing control of over 80% of the disputed territory to the Islamist insurgents.^[100]

During the coalition government's brief tenure, Somalia topped the Fund For Peace's Failed States Index for three consecutive years. In 2009, Transparency International ranked the nation in last place on its annualCorruption Perceptions Index (CPI),^[109] a metric that purports to show the prevalence of corruption in a country's public sector. In mid-2010, the Institute for Economics and Peace also ranked Somalia in the next-to-last position, in between war-afflicted Iraq and Afghanistan, on its Global Peace Index. During the same period, the UN International Monitoring Group (IMG) published a report claiming that the Somali government's security forces were ineffective and corrupt, and that up to half of the food aid that was destined for the conflict-stricken parts of the country was being misdirected. It also accused Somali officials of collaborating with pirates, UN contractors of helping insurgents, and the Eritrean government of still supporting rebel groups in southern Somalia despite earlier sanctions imposed on the former. Somalia's government and local businessmen, as well as United Nations officials and the Eritrean government all emphatically rejected the report's claims.^[110][111]

Flag of Somaliland, an unrecognised self-declared sovereign state that is internationally recognised as an autonomous region of Somalia.

In 2010, reports surfaced linking the secessionist government of the northwestern Somaliland region with the Islamist extremists that are currently waging war against the Transitional Federal Government and its African Union allies. Garowe Online reported in October that Mohamed Said Atom, an arms-smuggler believed to be allied with Al-Shabaab and who is on U.S. and U.N. security watch-lists, was hiding out in Somaliland after being pursued by the neighboring Puntland region's authorities for his role in targeted assassination attempts against Puntland officials as well as bomb plots.^[112][113] Several of Atom's followers were also reportedly receiving medical attention in the region, after having been wounded in a counter-terrorism raid in the Galgala hills by Puntland security personnel.^[112] According to Puntland government documents, the Somaliland region's Riyale government in 2006 both financed and offered military assistance to Atom's men as part of a campaign to destabilize the autonomous territory via proxy agents and to distract attention away from the Somaliland government's own attempts at occupying the disputed Sool province. The Puntland Intelligence Agency (PIA), a covert organization supported and trained by U.S. counter-terrorism agencies based in Djibouti, also indicated that over 70 salaried Somaliland soldiers had fought alongside Atom's militiamen during the Galgala operation, including one known Somaliland intelligence official who died in the ensuing battle.^[113][114] The following month, the Puntland government issued a press release accusing the incumbent Somaliland administration of providing a safe haven for Atom and of attempting to revive remnants of his militia.^[115] Several top commanders in the Al-Shabaab group, including former leader Ahmed Abdi Godane ("Moktar Ali Zubeyr"), are also reported to hail from the Somaliland region, with Godane quoted as saying that Al Shabaab insurgents "should not interfere in Somaliland until Puntland is destabilized first."^[112][116]

Reforms

Somalia's coalition government enacted numerous political reforms since taking office in 2009, with an emphasis on transparency and accountability. One of its first changes involved ensuring that all government institutions, which had previously been spread out in various areas throughout the country, were now based in Mogadishu, the nation's capital. The Central Bank of Somalia was also re-established, and a national plan as well as an effective anti-corruption commission were put into place.^[117] In July 2009, Somalia's Transitional Federal Government hired global professional services firm Pricewaterhousecoopers to monitor development funding and serving as a trustee of an account in Mogadishu for the security, healthcare and education sectors.^[118] This was followed in November of that year with a $2 million agreement between the government and the African Development Bank (AfDB), which saw Somalia re-engage with the AfDB after nearly two decades of interruption. The grant is aimed at providing financial and technical assistance; specifically, to develop a sound legal framework for monetary and fiscal institutions and human and institutional capacity building, as well as to establish public financial systems that are transparent.^[117]

Similarly, the autonomous Puntland region's new administration, which took office in early 2009, has also implemented numerous reforms such as the expansion and improvement of its security and judicial sectors. According to Garowe Online, to bolster the region's justice system, numerous new prosecutors, judges and other court personnel as well as additional prison guards were hired and trained. In July 2010, the Puntland Council of Ministers unanimously approved a new anti-terrorism law to more efficiently handle terror suspects and their accomplices; a special court is also expected to be established within the region's existing criminal courts system to facilitate the task.^[119]Fiscally, a transparent, budget-based public finance system was established, which has reportedly helped increase public confidence in government. In addition, a new regional constitution was drafted and later passed on June 15, 2009, which is believed to represent a significant step toward the eventual introduction of a multi-party political system to the region for the first time;^[120] such a system already exists in the adjacent Somaliland region.^[121] More modest reforms were also put into motion in the social sector, particularly in the education and healthcare fields. The regional government has hired more healthcare workers and teachers, with major plans underway for school and hospital renovations.^[120] One of the most significant new reforms enacted by the incumbent Puntland administration is the launching in May 2009 of the Puntland Agency for Social Welfare (PASWE), the first organization of its kind in Somali history. The agency provides medical, educational and counseling support to vulnerable groups and individuals such as orphans, the disabled and the blind. PASWE is overseen by a Board of Directors, which consists of religious scholars (ulema), businesspeople, intellectuals and traditional elders.^[122]

New government

On October 14, 2010, diplomat Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo was appointed the new Prime Minister of Somalia. The former Premier Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke resigned the month before following a protracted dispute with President Sharif over a proposed draft constitution.^[123]

Foreign Minister of Somalia Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar in a meeting with UNDP Administrator Helen Clark and other diplomats at the UN headquarters in New York.

Per the Transitional Federal Government's (TFG) Charter,^[124] Prime Minister Mohamed named a new Cabinet on November 12, 2010,^[125] which has been lauded by the international community.^[126][127] As had been expected, the allotted ministerial positions were significantly reduced in numbers, with only 18 administrative posts unveiled versus the previous government's bloated 39 portfolios.^[125][128] Only two Ministers from the previous Cabinet were reappointed: Hussein Abdi Halane, the former Minister of Finance and a well-regarded figure in the international community, was put in charge of a consolidated Ministry of Finance and Treasury; and Dr. Mohamud Abdi Ibrahim was reassigned to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.^[129] Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a, a moderate Sufi group and an important military ally of the TFG, was also accorded the key Interior and Labour ministries.^[128][129] The remaining ministerial positions were largely assigned to technocrats new to the Somali political arena.^[130]

In its first 50 days in office, Prime Minister Mohamed's new administration completed its first monthly payment of stipends to government soldiers, and initiated the implementation of a full biometric register for the security forces within a window of four months. Additional members of the Independent Constitutional Commission were also appointed to engage Somali constitutional lawyers, religious scholars and experts in Somali culture over the nation's upcoming new constitution, a key part of the government's Transitional Federal Tasks. In addition, high level federal delegations were dispatched to defuse clan-related tensions in several regions. According to the prime minister of Somalia, to improve transparency, Cabinet ministers fully disclosed their assets and signed a code of ethics.^[25] An Anti-Corruption Commission with the power to carry out formal investigations and to review government decisions and protocols was also established so as to more closely monitor all activities by public officials. Furthermore, unnecessary trips abroad by members of government were prohibited, and all travel by ministers now require the Premier's consent.^[25][131] A budget outlining 2011's federal expenditures was also put before and approved by members of parliament, with the payment of civil service employees prioritized. In addition, a full audit of government property and vehicles is being put into place. On the war front, the new government and its AMISOM allies also managed to secure control of 60% of Mogadishu, where 80% of the capital's population now lives. According to the African Union and Prime Minister Mohamed, with increasing troop strength the pace of territorial gains is expected to greatly accelerate.^[25][132]

The Transitional Federal Government continues to reach out to both Somali and international stakeholders to help grow the administrative capacity of the Transitional Federal Institutions and to work toward eventual national elections in 2011,^[26] when the interim government's mandate expires.^[25][26]

Law

Following the outbreak of the civil war and the ensuing collapse of the central government, Somalia's residents reverted to local forms of conflict resolution, either secular, traditional or Islamic law, with a provision for appeal of all sentences. The legal structure in Somalia is thus divided along three lines: civil law, religious law and customary law.^[2]

Civil law

While Somalia's formal judicial system was largely destroyed after the fall of the Siad Barre regime, it has been rebuilt and is now administered under different regional governments such as the autonomous Puntland and Somaliland macro-regions. In the case of theTransitional Federal Government, a new interim judicial structure was formed through various international conferences.

Despite some significant political differences between them, all of these administrations share similar legal structures, much of which are predicated on the judicial systems of previous Somali administrations. These similarities in civil law include: a) a charter which affirms the primacy of Muslim shari'a or religious law, although in practice shari'a is applied mainly to matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, and civil issues. The charter guarantees respect for universal standards of human rights to all subjects of the law. It also assures the independence of the judiciary, which in turn is protected by a judicial committee; b) a three-tier judicial system including a supreme court, acourt of appeals, and courts of first instance (either divided between district and regional courts, or a single court per region); and c) the laws of the civilian government which were in effect prior to the military coup d'état that saw the Barre regime into power remain in force until the laws are amended.^[133]

Shari'a

Islamic shari'a has traditionally played a significant part in Somali society. In theory, it has served as the basis for all national legislation in every Somali constitution. In practice, however, it only applied to common civil cases such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and family matters. This changed after the start of the civil war, when a number of new shari'a courts began to spring up in many different cities and towns across the country. These new shari'a courts serve three functions; namely, to pass rulings in both criminal and civil cases, to organize a militia capable of arresting criminals, and to keep convicted prisoners incarcerated.^[133]

The shari'a courts, though structured along simple lines, feature a conventional hierarchy of a chairman, vice-chairman and four judges. A police force that reports to the court enforces the judges' rulings, but also helps settle community disputes and apprehend suspected criminals. In addition, the courts manage detention centers where criminals are kept. An independent finance committee is also assigned the task of collecting and managing tax revenue levied on regional merchants by the local authorities.^[133]

In March 2009, Somalia's newly established coalition government announced that it would implement shari'a as the nation's official judicial system.^[108]

Xeer

Main article: Xeer

Somalis have for centuries practiced a form of customary law, which they call Xeer. Xeer is a polycentric legal system where there is no monopolistic institution or agent that determines what the law should be or how it should be interpreted.

The Xeer legal system is assumed to have developed exclusively in the Horn of Africa since approximately the 7th century. There is no evidence that it developed elsewhere or was greatly influenced by any foreign legal system. The fact that Somali legal terminology is practically devoid of loan words from foreign languages suggests that Xeer is truly indigenous.^[134]

The Xeer legal system also requires a certain amount of specialization of different functions within the legal framework. Thus, one can findodayaal (judges), xeerbogeyaal (jurists), guurtiyaal (detectives), garxajiyaal (attorneys), markhaatiyal (witnesses) and waranle (police officers) to enforce the law.^[135]

Xeer is defined by a few fundamental tenets that are immutable and which closely approximate the principle of jus cogens in international law: These precepts include a) payment of blood money (locally referred to as diya) for libel, theft, physical harm, rape and death, as well as supplying assistance to relatives; b) assuring good inter-clan relations by treating women justly, negotiating with "peace emissaries" in good faith, and sparing the lives of socially protected groups "Birr Magaydo," (e.g. children, women, the pious, poets, messengers, sheikhs, and guests); c) family obligations such as the payment of dowry, and sanctions for eloping; d) rules pertaining to the management of resources such as the use of pasture land, water, and other natural resources; e) providing financial support to married female relatives and newlyweds; and f) donating livestock and other assets to the poor.^[133]

Regions and districts

Main articles: Administrative divisions of Somalia and States and regions of Somalia

Official regions of Somalia.

Somalia is officially divided into eighteen regions (gobollada, singular gobol),^[2] which in turn are subdivided into districts. The regions are:

1 Jubbada Hoose 2 Jubbada Dhexe 3 Gedo 4 Bay 5 Bakool 6 Shabeellaha Hoose

7 Banaadir 8 Shabeellaha Dhexe 9 Hiiraan 10 Galguduud 11 Mudug 12 Nugaal

13 Bari 14 Sool 15 Sanaag 16 Togdheer 17 Woqooyi Galbeed 18 Awdal

On a de facto basis, northern Somalia is now divided up among the autonomous regions of Puntland (which considers itself an autonomous state) and Somaliland (a self-declared but un-recognized sovereign state). In central Somalia, Galmudug is another regional entity that emerged just south of Puntland.^[2]

Geography

Main article: Geography of Somalia

The Cal Madow mountain range in northern Somalia features the nation's highest peak, Shimbiris.

Somalia is bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, the Gulf of Aden withYemen to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Ethiopia to the west. It lies between latitudes 2°S and 12°N, and longitudes 41° and 52°E. Strategically located at the mouth of theBab el Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, the country occupies the tip of a region that, due to its resemblance on the map to a rhinoceros' horn, is commonly referred to as the Horn of Africa.^[2][136]

Somalia has the longest coastline on the continent,^[13] with a seaboard that stretches 3,025 kilometers.^[2] Its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. The nation has a total area of 637,657 square kilometers (246,199 square miles) of which constitutes land, with 10,320 square kilometers (3,985 square miles) of water.^[2] Somalia's land boundaries extend to about 2,366 kilometers (1,470 miles) of that is shared with (58 kilometers, or 36 miles) with Djibouti, (682 kilometers, or 424 miles) with Kenya, and {1,626 kilometers, or 1,010 miles} with Ethiopia. Its maritime claims include territorial waters of 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi).^[2]

In the north, a scrub-covered, semi-desert plain referred as the Guban lies parallel to the Gulf of Aden littoral. With a width of twelve kilometers in the west to as little as two kilometers in the east, the plain is bisected by watercourses that are essentially beds of dry sand except during the rainy seasons. When the rains arrive, the Guban's low bushes and grass clumps transform into lush vegetation.^[136] This coastal strip is part of the Ethiopian xeric grasslands and shrublands ecoregion.

The Jubba River

Cal Madow is a mountain range in the northeastern part of the country. Extending from several kilometers west of the city of Bosaso to the northwest of Erigavo, it features Somalia's highestpeak, Shimbiris, which sits at an elevation of about 2,416 metres (7,927 ft).^[2] The rugged east-west ranges of the Karkaar Mountains also lie to the interior of the Gulf of Aden littoral.^[136] In the central regions, the country's northern mountain ranges give way to shallow plateaus and typically dry watercourses that are referred to locally as the Ogo. The Ogo's western plateau, in turn, gradually merges into the Haud, an important grazing area for livestock.^[136]

Somalia has only two permanent rivers, the Jubba and the Shabele, both of which begin in theEthiopian Highlands. These rivers mainly flow southwards, with the Jubba River entering the Indian Ocean at Kismayo. The Shabele River at one time apparently used to enter the sea near Merca, but now reaches a point just southwest of Mogadishu. After that, it consists of swamps and dry reaches before finally disappearing in the desert terrain east of Jilib, near the Jubba River.^[136]

Climate

Arabian horses, referred to as faras, seen here in the arid plains of Dhahar.

Due to Somalia's proximity to the equator, there is not much seasonal variation in its climate. Hot conditions prevail year-round along with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall. Mean daily maximum temperatures range from 30 to 40 °C (86 to 104 °F), except at higher elevations and along the eastern seaboard, where the effects of a cold offshore current can be felt. In Mogadishu, for instance, average afternoon highs range from 28 °C (82 °F) to 32 °C (90 °F) in April. Some of the highest mean annual temperatures in the world have been recorded in the country; Berbera on the northwestern coast has an afternoon high that averages more than 38 °C (100 °F) from June through September. Nationally, mean daily minimums usually vary from about 15 to 30 °C (59 to 86 °F).^[136] The greatest range in climate occurs in northern Somalia, where temperatures sometimes surpass 45 °C (113 °F) in July on the littoral plains and drop below the freezing point during December in the highlands.^[14][136] In this region, relative humidity ranges from about 40% in the mid-afternoon to 85% at night, changing somewhat according to the season.^[136]

Unlike the climates of most other countries at this latitude, conditions in Somalia range from arid in the northeastern and central regions tosemiarid in the northwest and south. In the northeast, annual rainfall is less than 4 inches (100 mm); in the central plateaus, it is about 8 to 12 inches (200 to 300 mm). The northwestern and southwestern parts of the nation, however, receive considerably more rain, with an average of 20 to 24 inches (510 to 610 mm) falling per year. Although the coastal regions are hot and humid throughout the year, the hinterland is typically dry and hot.^[136]

There are four main seasons around which pastoral and agricultural life revolve, and these are dictated by shifts in the wind patterns. From December to March is the Jilal, the harshest dry season of the year. The main rainy season, referred to as the Gu, lasts from April to June. This period is characterized by the southwest monsoons, which rejuvenate the pasture land, especially the central plateau, and briefly transform the desert into lush vegetation. From July to September is the second dry season, the Xagaa (pronounced "Hagaa"). The Dayr, which is the shortest rainy season, lasts from October to December.^[136] The tangambili periods that intervene between the two monsoons (October–November and March–May) are hot and humid.^[136]

[hide]Climate data for Somalia
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	30 (86)	30 (86)	40 (104)	40 (104)	40 (104)	40 (104)	40 (104)	30 (86)	30 (86)	30 (86)	30 (86)	30 (86)	30 (86)
Average low °C (°F)	15 (59)	15 (59)	15 (59)	15 (59)	15 (59)	15 (59)	15 (59)	15 (59)	15 (59)	15 (59)	15 (59)	15 (59)	15 (59)
Precipitation mm (inches)	40 (1.57)	40 (1.57)	40 (1.57)	40 (1.57)	40 (1.57)	40 (1.57)	50 (1.97)	50 (1.97)	40 (1.57)	40 (1.57)	40 (1.57)	40 (1.57)	500 (19.69)
Source: Country Studies – Somalia[14]

Health

Until the collapse of the federal government in 1991, the organizational and administrative structure of Somalia's healthcare sector was overseen by the Ministry of Health. Regional medical officials enjoyed some authority, but healthcare was largely centralized. The socialistgovernment of former President of Somalia Siad Barre had put an end to private medical practice in 1972.^[137] Much of the national budget was devoted to military expenditure, leaving few resources for healthcare, among other services.^[138]

Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in Hargeisa, one of Somalia's many new private healthcare facilities.

Somalia's public healthcare system was largely destroyed during the ensuing civil war. As with other previously nationalized sectors, informal providers have filled the vacuum and replaced the former government monopoly over healthcare, with access to facilities witnessing a significant increase.^[139] Many new healthcare centers, clinics, hospitals and pharmacies have in the process been established through home-grown Somali initiatives.^[139] The cost of medical consultations and treatment in these facilities is low, at $5.72 per visit in health centers (with a population coverage of 95%), and between $1.89–$3.97 per outpatient visit and $7.83–$13.95 per bed day in primary through tertiary hospitals.^[140]

Comparing the 2005–2010 period with the half-decade just prior to the outbreak of the conflict (1985–1990), life expectancy actually increased from an average of 47 years for men and women to 48.2 years for men and 51.0 years for women.^[141][142] Similarly, the number of one-year-olds fully immunized against measles rose from 30% in 1985–1990 to 40% in 2000–2005,^[141][143] and for tuberculosis, it grew nearly 20% from 31% to 50% over the same period.^[141][143] In keeping with the trend, the number of infants with low birth weight fell from 16 per 1000 to 0.3, a 15% drop in total over the same timeframe.^[141][144] Between 2005–2010 as compared to the 1985–1990 period, infant mortality per 1,000 births also fell from 152 to 109.6.^[141][142] Significantly, maternal mortality per 100,000 births fell from 1,600 in the pre-war 1985–1990 half-decade to 1,100 in the 2000–2005 period.^[141][145] The number of physicians per 100,000 people also rose from 3.4 to 4 over the same timeframe,^[141][143] as did the percentage of the population with access to sanitation services, which increased from 18% to 26%.^[141][143]

A Somali boy receiving a poliovaccination.

According to a 2005 World Health Organization estimate, about 97.9% of Somalia's women and girls have undergone female circumcision,^[146] a pre-marital custom mainly endemic to Northeast Africa and parts of the Near East that has its ultimate origins in Ancient Egypt.^[147][148]Encouraged by women in the community, it is primarily intended to deter promiscuity and to offer protection from assault.^[149] About 93% of Somalia's male population is also reportedly circumcised.^[150]

Somalia has one of the lowest HIV infection rates on the continent. This is attributed to the Muslimnature of Somali society and adherence of Somalis to Islamic morals.^[151] While the estimated HIV prevalence rate in Somalia in 1987 (the first case report year) was 1% of adults,^[151] a more recent estimate from 2007 now places it at only 0.5% of the nation's adult population despite the ongoing civil strife.^[2]

Although healthcare is now largely concentrated in the private sector, the country's public healthcare system is in the process of being rebuilt, and is overseen by the Ministry of Health. The current Minister of Health is Qamar Adan Ali.^[152] The autonomous Puntland region maintains its own Ministry of Health, which is headed by Dr. Mohamed Bashir Ali Bihi,^[153] as does the Somaliland region in northwestern Somalia, with its Ministry of Health led by Osman Bile Ali.^[154]

Some of the prominent healthcare facilities in the country are East Bardera Mothers and Children's Hospital, Abudwak Maternity and Children's Hospital, Edna Adan Maternity Hospital and West Bardera Maternity Unit.

Education

Main article: Education in Somalia

New Mogadishu University campus

Following the outbreak of the civil war in 1991, the task of running schools in Somalia was initially taken up by community education committees established in 94% of the local schools.^[155]Numerous problems had arisen with regard to access to education in rural areas and along gender lines, quality of educational provisions, responsiveness of school curricula, educational standards and controls, management and planning capacity, and financing. To address these concerns, educational policies are being developed which are aimed at guiding the scholastic process.^{[clarification needed]} In the autonomous Puntland region, the latter includes a gender sensitive national education policy compliant with world standards, such as those outlined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).^[156] Examples of this and other educational measures at work are the regional government's enactment of legislation aimed at securing the educational interests of girls,^[157] promoting the growth of an Early Childhood Development (ECD) program designed to reach parents and care-givers in their homes as well as in the ECD centers for 0–5 year old children,^[158] and introducing incentive packages to encourage teachers to work in remote rural areas.^[159]

The Hammar Jab Jab School in Mogadishu

The Ministry of Education is officially responsible for education in Somalia, and oversees the nation's primary, secondary, technical and vocational schools, as well as primary and technicalteacher training and non-formal education. About 15% of the government's budget is allocated toward scholastic instruction.^[160] The autonomous Puntland and Somaliland macro-regions maintain their own Ministries of Education.

In 2006, Puntland was the second territory in Somalia after Somaliland to introduce free primary schools, with teachers now receiving their salaries from the Puntland administration.^[161] From 2005/2006 to 2006/2007, there was a significant increase in the number of schools in Puntland, up 137 institutions from just one year prior. During the same period, the number of classes in the region increased by 504, with 762 more teachers also offering their services.^[162] Total student enrollment increased by 27% over the previous year, with girls lagging only slightly behind boys in attendance in most regions. The highest class enrollment was observed in the northernmost Bari region, and the lowest was observed in the under-populated Ayn region. The distribution of classrooms was almost evenly split between urban and rural areas, with marginally more pupils attending and instructors teaching classes in urban areas.^[162]

Entrance to Amoud University in Borama.

Higher education in Somalia is now largely private. Several universities in the country, includingMogadishu University, have been scored among the 100 best universities in Africa in spite of the harsh environment, which has been hailed as a triumph for grass-roots initiatives.^[163] Other universities also offering higher education in the south include Benadir University, the Somalia National University, Kismayo University and the University of Gedo. In Puntland, higher education is provided by the Puntland State University and East Africa University. In Somaliland, it is provided by Amoud University, the University of Hargeisa, Somaliland University of Technology andBurao University.

Qu'ranic schools (also known as duqsi) remain the basic system of traditional religious instruction in Somalia. They provide Islamic education for children, thereby filling a clear religious and social role in the country. Known as the most stable local, non-formal system of education providing basic religious and moral instruction, their strength rests on community support and their use of locally made and widely available teaching materials. The Qu'ranic system, which teaches the greatest number of students relative to other educational sub-sectors, is often the only system accessible to Somalis in nomadic as compared to urban areas. A study from 1993 found, among other things, that about 40% of pupils in Qur'anic schools were girls. To address shortcomings in religious instruction, the Somali government on its own part also subsequently established the Ministry of Endowment and Islamic Affairs, under which Qur'anic education is now regulated.^[164]

Economy

Main article: Economy of Somalia

Air Somalia Tupolev Tu-154 in Sharjah,United Arab Emirates. Somalia today has a thriving private airline industry.

According to the CIA and the Central Bank of Somalia, despite experiencing civil unrest, Somalia has maintained a healthy informal economy, based mainly on livestock, remittance/money transfercompanies and telecommunications.^[2][27] Due to a dearth of formal government statistics and the recent civil war, it is difficult to gauge the size or growth of the economy. For 1994, the CIA estimated the GDP at $3.3 billion.^[165] In 2001, it was estimated to be $4.1 billion.^[166] By 2009, the CIA estimated that the GDP had grown to $5.731 billion, with a projected real growth rate of 2.6%.^[2] According to a 2007 British Chambers of Commerce report, the private sector also grew, particularly in the service sector. Unlike the pre-civil war period when most services and the industrial sector were government-run, there has been substantial, albeit unmeasured, private investment in commercial activities; this has been largely financed by the Somali diaspora, and includes trade and marketing, money transfer services, transportation, communications, fishery equipment, airlines, telecommunications, education, health, construction and hotels.^[167]Libertarian economist Peter T. Leeson attributes this increased economic activity to the Somali customary law (referred to as Xeer), which he suggests provides a stable environment to conduct business in.^[138]

The Central Bank of Somalia indicates that the country's GDP per capita is $333, which is lower than that of Kenya at $350, but better than that of Tanzania at $280 as well as Eritrea at $190 and Ethiopia at $100. About 43% of the population live on less than 1 US dollar a day, with about 24% of those found in urban areas and 54% living in rural areas.^[27]

Cans of Las Qoray brand tuna fish made in Las Khorey.

As with neighboring countries, Somalia's economy consists of both traditional and modern production, with a gradual shift in favor of modern industrial techniques taking root. According to the Central Bank of Somalia, about 80% of the population are nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralists, who keep goats, sheep, camels and cattle. The nomads also gather resins and gums to supplement their income.^[27]

Agriculture is the most important economic sector. It accounts for about 65% of the GDP and employs 65% of the workforce.^[167] Livestock contributes about 40% to GDP and more than 50% of export earnings.^[2] Other principal exports include fish, charcoal and bananas; sugar, sorghumand corn are products for the domestic market.^[168] According to the Central Bank of Somalia, imports of goods total about $460 million per year, surpassing aggregate imports prior to the start of the civil war in 1991. Exports, which total about $270 million annually, have also surpassed pre-war aggregate export levels. Somalia has a trade deficit of about $190 million per year, but this is exceeded by remittances sent by Somalis in the diaspora, estimated to be about $1 billion.^[27]

With the advantage of being located near the Arabian Peninsula, Somali traders have increasingly begun to challenge Australia's traditional dominance over the Gulf Arab livestock and meat market, offering quality animals at very low prices. In response, Gulf Arab states have started to make strategic investments in the country, with Saudi Arabia building livestock export infrastructure and the United Arab Emiratespurchasing large farmlands.^[169] Somalia is also a major world supplier of frankincense and myrrh.^[170]

Bosaso port.

The modest industrial sector, based on the processing of agricultural products, accounts for 10% of Somalia's GDP.^[2] Up to 14 private airline firms operating 62 aircraft now also offer commercial flights to international locations, including Daallo Airlines. With competitively priced flight tickets, these companies have helped buttress Somalia's bustling trade networks.^[163][167] In 2008, the Puntland government signed a multi-million dollar deal with Dubai's Lootah Group, a regional industrial group operating in the Middle East and Africa. According to the agreement, the first phase of the investment is worth Dhs 170 m and will see a set of new companies established to operate, manage and build Bosaso's free trade zone and sea and airport facilities. The Bosaso Airport Company is slated to develop the airport complex to meet international standards, including a new 3.4 km runway, main and auxiliary buildings, taxi and apron areas, and security perimeters.^[171]

Prior to the outbreak of the civil war in 1991, the roughly 53 state-owned small, medium and large manufacturing firms were foundering, with the ensuing conflict destroying many of the remaining industries. However, primarily as a result of substantial local investment by the Somali diaspora, many of these small-scale plants have re-opened and newer ones have been created. The latter include fish-canning and meat-processing plants in the northern regions, as well as about 25 factories in the Mogadishu area, which manufacture pasta, mineral water,confections, plastic bags, fabric, hides and skins, detergent and soap, aluminum, foam mattresses and pillows, fishing boats, carry out packaging, and stone processing.^[163] In 2004, an $8.3 million Coca-Cola bottling plant also opened in the city, with investors hailing from various constituencies in Somalia.^[172] Foreign investment also included multinationals like General Motors and Dole Fruit.^[173]

Airspace over Somalia is controlled by the UN, with the $275 per plane going to the UN rather than the Somali government. The TFG is trying to obtain control of the airspace, but it is not known if they will be able to maintain it effectively.^[174]

Payment system

Main articles: Central Bank of Somalia and Somali shilling

The Central Bank of Somalia is the official monetary authority of Somalia.^[27] In terms of financial management, it is in the process of assuming the task of both formulating and implementing monetary policy.^[175]

A Dahabshiil franchise outlet inColumbus, Ohio

Owing to a lack of confidence in the local currency, the US dollar is widely accepted as a medium of exchange alongside the Somali shilling. Dollarization notwithstanding, the large issuance of the Somali shilling has increasingly fueled price hikes, especially for low value transactions. According to the central bank: "This inflationary environment, however, is expected to come to an end as soon as the Central Bank assumes full control of monetary policy and replaces the presently circulating currency introduced by the private sector."^[175]

Although Somalia has had no central monetary authority for more than 15 years between the outbreak of the civil war in 1991 and the subsequent re-establishment of the Central Bank of Somalia in 2009, the nation's payment system is fairly advanced primarily due to the widespread existence of private money transfer operators (MTO) that have acted as informal banking networks.^[176]

These remittance firms (hawalas) have become a large industry in Somalia, with an estimated $1.6 billion USD annually remitted to the region by Somalis in the diaspora via money transfer companies.^[2] Most are members of the Somali Money Transfer Association (SOMTA), an umbrella organization that regulates the community's money transfer sector, or its predecessor, the Somali Financial Services Association (SFSA).^[177][178] The largest of the Somali MTOs is Dahabshiil, a Somali-owned firm employing more than 2000 people across 144 countries with branches in London and Dubai.^[178][179]

As the reconstituted Central Bank of Somalia fully assumes its monetary policy responsibilities, some of the existing money transfer companies are expected in the near future to seek licenses so as to develop into full-fledged commercial banks. This will serve to expand the national payments system to include formal cheques, which in turn is expected to reinforce the efficacy of the use of monetary policy in domestic macroeconomic management.^[176]

Energy

The World Bank reports that electricity is now in large part supplied by local businesses, using generators purchased abroad. By dividing Somalia's cities into specific quarters, the private sector has found a manageable method of providing cities with electricity. A customer is given a menu of choices for electricity tailored to his or her needs, such as evenings only, daytime only, 24 hour-supply or charge per lightbulb.^[167]

Oil blocks in Puntland.

Somalia has untapped reserves of numerous natural resources, including uranium, iron ore, tin,gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt and natural gas.^[2] Due to its proximity to the oil-rich Gulf Arabstates such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the nation is also believed to contain substantial unexploited reserves of oil. A survey of Northeast Africa by the World Bank and U.N. ranked Somalia second only to Sudan as the top prospective producer.^[180] American, Australian andChinese oil companies, in particular, are excited about the prospect of finding petroleum and other natural resources in the country. An oil group listed in Sydney, Range Resources, anticipates that the Puntland province in the north has the potential to produce 5 billion barrels (790×10⁶ m³) to 10 billion barrels (1.6×10⁹ m³) of oil.^[181] As a result of these developments, the Somali Petroleum Company was created by the federal government.

According to surveys, uranium is also found in large quantities in the Buurhakaba region. ABrazilian company in the 1980s had invested $300 million for a uranium mine in central Somalia, but no long-term mining took place.^[182]

Additionally, the Puntland region under the Farole administration has since sought to refine the province's existing oil deal with Range Resources. The Australian oil firm, for its part, indicated that it looked forward to establishing a mutually beneficial and profitable working relationship with the region's new government.^[183][184]

In mid-2010, Somalia's business community also pledged to invest $1 billion in the national gas and electricity industries over the following five years. Abdullahi Hussein, the director of the just-formed Trans-National Industrial Electricity and Gas Company, predicted that the investment strategy would create 100,000 jobs, with the net effect of stimulating the local economy and discouraging unemployed youngsters from turning to vice. The new firm was established through the merger of five Somali companies from the trade, finance, security andtelecommunications sectors. The first phase of the project is scheduled to start within six months of the establishment of the company, and will train youth to supply electricity to economic areas and communities. The second phase, which is slated to begin in mid-to-late 2011, will see the construction of factories in specially designated economic zones for the fishing, agriculture, livestock and mining industries.^[185][186]

According to the Central Bank of Somalia, as the nation embarks on the path of reconstruction, the economy is expected to not only match its pre-civil war levels, but also to accelerate in growth and development due to Somalia's untapped natural resources.^[27]

Telecommunications and media

The Hormuud Telecom building in Mogadishu

Somalia now offers some of the most technologically advanced and competitively pricedtelecommunications and Internet services in the world.^[179] After the start of the civil war, various new telecommunications companies began to spring up and compete to provide missing infrastructure. Funded by Somali entrepreneurs and backed by expertise from China, Korea and Europe, these nascent telecommunications firms offer affordable mobile phone and Internet services that are not available in many other parts of the continent. Customers can conduct money transfers and other banking activities viamobile phones, as well as easily gain wireless Internet access.^[187]

After forming partnerships with multinational corporations such as Sprint, ITT and Telenor, these firms now offer the cheapest and clearest phone calls in Africa.^[188] These Somali telecommunication companies also provide services to every city, town and hamlet in Somalia. There are presently around 25 mainlines per 1,000 persons, and the local availability of telephone lines (tele-density) is higher than in neighboring countries; three times greater than in adjacent Ethiopia.^[163] Prominent Somali telecommunications companies include Golis Telecom Group, Hormuud Telecom, Somafone, Nationlink, Netco, Telcom andSomali Telecom Group. Hormuud Telecom alone grosses about $40 million a year. Despite their rivalry, several of these companies signed an interconnectivity deal in 2005 that allows them to set prices, maintain and expand their networks, and ensure that competition does not get out of control.^[187]

"Investment in the telecom industry is one of the clearest signs that Somalia's economy has continued to grow despite the ongoing civil strife in parts of the southern half of the country".^[187] The sector provides important communication services, and in the process thus facilitates job creation and income generation.^[163]

Somalia also has several private television and radio networks.^[189] Prominent media organizations in the country include the state-run Radio Mogadishu, as well as the privately-owned Horseed Media, Garowe Online and Radio Laascaanood.

Military

Main article: Military of Somalia

A Spoon Rest A (P-12) early warning radar unit, part of radar installation operated by Somali troops at the Berbera airport.

Prior to the outbreak of the civil war in 1991 and the subsequent disintegration of the Armed Forces, Somalia's friendship with the Soviet Union and later partnership with the United States enabled it to build the largest army in Africa.^[76] The creation of the Transitional Federal Government in 2004 saw the re-establishment of the Military of Somalia, which now maintains a force of 10,000 troops. The Ministry of Defense is responsible for the Armed Forces.

After almost 2 decades of absence, 500 marines were being trained in 2010 as a first start to re-establish the Somali Navy.^[190] In addition, there are plans for the re-establishment of the Somali Air Force, with six combat and six transport planes already purchased.^{[citation needed]} A new police force was also formed, with the first police academy to be built in Somalia for several years opening on December 20, 2005 at Armo, 100 kilometers south of Bosaso, the commercial capital of the northeastern Puntland region.^[191] Additionally, construction began in May 2010 on a new naval base in the town of Bandar Siyada, located 25 km west of Bosaso. The new naval base is funded by the Puntland administration in conjunction with Saracen International, a UK-based security company. It will include a center for training recruits, and a command post for the naval force.^[192]

Environment

Somalia's coral reefs, ecological parks and protected areas.

Somalia is a semi-arid country with about 1.64% arable land.^[2] The first local environmental organizations were Ecoterra Somalia and the Somali Ecological Society, both of which helped promote awareness about ecological concerns and mobilized environmental programs in all governmental sectors as well as in civil society. From 1971 onwards, a massive tree-planting campaign on a nationwide scale was introduced by the Siad Barre government to halt the advance of thousands of acres of wind-driven sand dunes that threatened to engulf towns, roads and farm land.^[193] By 1988, 265 hectares of a projected 336 hectares had been treated, with 39 range reserve sites and 36 forestry plantation sites established.^[136] In 1986, the Wildlife Rescue, Research and Monitoring Centre was established by Ecoterra Intl., with the goal of sensitizing the public to ecological issues. This educational effort led in 1989 to the so-called "Somalia proposal" and a decision by the Somali government to adhere to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which established for the first time a worldwide ban on the trade of elephant ivory.

Later, Fatima Jibrell, a prominent Somali environmental activist, mounted a successful campaign to salvage old-growth forests of acacia trees in the northeastern part of Somalia.^[194] These trees, which can grow up to 500 years old, were being cut down to make charcoal since this so-called "black gold" is highly in demand in the Arabian Peninsula, where the region's Bedouin tribes believe the acacia to be sacred.^{[194][195][196]} However, while being a relatively inexpensive fuel that meets a user's needs, the production of charcoal often leads to deforestation anddesertification.^[196] As a way of addressing this problem, Jibrell and the Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organization (Horn Relief), an organization of which she is a co-founder and Executive Director, trained a group of adolescents to educate the public on the permanent damage that producing charcoal can create. In 1999, Horn Relief coordinated a peace march in the northeastern Puntland region of Somalia to put an end to the so-called "charcoal wars." As a result of Jibrell's lobbying and education efforts, the Puntland government in 2000 prohibited the exportation of charcoal. The government has also since enforced the ban, which has reportedly led to an 80% drop in exports of the product.^[197] Jibrell was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2002 for her efforts against environmental degradation and desertification.^[197] In 2008, she also won the National Geographic Society/Buffett Foundation Award for Leadership in Conservation.^[198]

Following the massive tsunami of December 2004, there have also emerged allegations that after the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in the late 1980s, Somalia's long, remote shoreline was used as a dump site for the disposal of toxic waste. The huge waves which battered northern Somalia after the tsunami are believed to have stirred up tons of nuclear and toxic waste that might have been dumped illegally in the country by foreign firms.^[199]

The European Green Party followed up these revelations by presenting before the press and the European Parliament in Strasbourg copies of contracts signed by two European companies — the Italian Swiss firm, Achair Partners, and an Italian waste broker, Progresso — and representatives of the then "President" of Somalia, the faction leader Ali Mahdi Mohamed, to accept 10 million tonnes of toxic waste in exchange for $80 million (then about £60 million).^[199]

According to reports by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the waste has resulted in far higher than normal cases of respiratory infections, mouth ulcers and bleeding, abdominal haemorrhages and unusual skin infections among many inhabitants of the areas around the northeastern towns of Hobyo and Benadir on the Indian Ocean coast — diseases consistent with radiation sickness. UNEP adds that the current situation along the Somali coastline poses a very serious environmental hazard not only in Somalia, but also in the eastern Africa sub-region.^[199]

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Somalia

A Somali girl

Somalia has a population of around 10 million inhabitants, about 85% of whom are ethnic Somalis.^[2] The total population according to the 1975 census was 3.3 million.^[200] Civil strife in the early 1990s greatly increased the size of the Somali diaspora, as many of the best educated Somalis left for the Middle East,Europe and North America.^[201]

Non-Somali ethnic minority groups make up the remainder of the nation's population, and are largely concentrated in the southern regions.^[202] They include Benadiri, Bravanese, Bantus, Bajuni, Ethiopians,Indians, Persians, Italians and Britons. Most Europeans left after independence.

The country's population is expanding at a growth rate of 2.809% per annum and a birth rate of 43.33 births/1,000 people.^[2] Most local residents are young, with a median age of 17.6 years; about 45% of the population is between the ages of 0–14 years, 52.5% is between the ages of 15–64 years, and only 2.5% is 65 years of age or older.^[2] The gender ratio is roughly balanced, with proportionally about as many men as women.^[2]

There is little reliable statistical information on urbanization in Somalia. However, rough estimates have been made indicating a rate of urbanization of 4.2% per annum (2005–10 est.), with many towns quickly growing into cities. As of 2008, 37% of the nation's population live in towns and cities, with the percentage rapidly increasing.^[2]

Cities of the Republic of Somalia Mogadishu Bosaso Kismayo Borama		Rank	Core City	Division	Pop.	view · talk · edit Hargeisa Merka Barawa Garowe
		1	Mogadishu	Banadir	Ca. 2,000,000			[203]
		2	Hargeisa	W.Galbeed	Ca. 2,000,000			[204]
		3	Bosaso	Bari	Ca. 950,000			[205]
		4	Gaalkacyo	Mudug	Ca. 545,000			[206]
		5	Berbera	W.Galbeed	Ca. 232,500			[207]
		6	Merca	Shabeellaha Hoose	Ca. 230,100			[207]
		7	Jamaame	Jubbada Hoose	Ca. 224,700			[207]
		8	Kismayo	Jubbada Hoose	Ca. 183,300			[207]
		9	Baidoa	Bay	Ca. 157,500			[207]
		10	Burao	Togdheer	Ca. 120,400			[207]
		11	Afgooye	Shabeellaha Hoose	Ca. 79,400			[207]
		12	Beledweyne	Hiiraan	Ca. 67,200			[207]
		13	Qoryoley	Shabeellaha Hoose	Ca. 62,700			[207]
		14	Garowe	Nugaal	Ca. 57,300			[207]
		15	Jowhar	Shabeellaha Dhexe	Ca. 57,100			[207]
		16	Bardera	Gedo	Ca. 51,300			[207]
		17	Qardho	Bari	Ca. 47,400			[207]
		18	Borama	Awdal	Ca. 39,100			[207]

Languages

Main article: Languages of Somalia

Somali and Arabic are the official languages of Somalia, while English and Italian are designated "second languages" by the Transitional Federal Charter of the Somali Republic. The Somali language is the mother tongue of the Somali people, the nation's most populous ethnic group.^[1][2] It is a member of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and its nearest relatives are the Afar and Saholanguages.^[208] Somali is the best documented of the Cushitic languages,^[209] with academic studies of it dating from before 1900.

The Osmanya writing script

Somali dialects are divided into three main groups: Northern, Benadir and Maay. Northern Somali (or Northern-Central Somali) forms the basis for Standard Somali. Benadir (also known as Coastal Somali) is spoken on the Benadir coast, from Cadaley to south of Merca including Mogadishu, as well as in the immediate hinterland. The coastal dialects have additional phonemes which do not exist in Standard Somali. Maay is principally spoken by the Digil and Mirifle (Rahanweyn) clans in the southern areas of Somalia.^[210]

Since Somali had long lost its ancient script,^[211] a number of writing systems have been used over the years for transcribing the language. Of these, the Somali alphabet is the most widely used, and has been the official writing script in Somalia since the government of former President of Somalia Siad Barre formally introduced it in October 1972.^[212]

The script was developed by the Somali linguist Shire Jama Ahmed specifically for the Somali language, and uses all letters of the English Latin alphabet except p, v and z. Besides Ahmed's Latin script, other orthographies that have been used for centuries for writing Somali include the long-established Arabic script and Wadaad's writing. Indigenous writing systems developed in the 20th century include the Osmanya, Borama and Kaddare scripts, which were invented by Osman Yusuf Kenadid, Sheikh Abdurahman Sheikh Nuur and Hussein Sheikh Ahmed Kaddare, respectively.^[213]

In addition to Somali, Arabic is an official national language in Somalia.^[1] Many Somalis speak it due to centuries-old ties with the Arab world, the far-reaching influence of the Arabic media, and religious education.

English is widely used and taught. Italian used to be a major language, but its influence significantly diminished following independence. It is now most frequently heard among older generations. Other minority languages include Bravanese, a variant of the Bantu Swahili languagethat is spoken along the coast by the Bravanese people, as well as Kibajuni, another Swahili dialect that is the mother tongue of the Bajuniminority ethnic group.

Religion

Main articles: Islam in Somalia and Christianity in Somalia

Most Somalis are Muslims,^[214] the majority belonging to the Sunni branch of Islam and the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence, although some are also adherents of the Shia Muslim denomination.^[215] Sufism, the mystical dimension of Islam, is also well-established, with many local jama'a (zawiya) or congregations of the various tariiqa or Sufi orders.^[216] The constitution of Somalia likewise defines Islam as the religion of the Somali Republic, and Islamic sharia as the basic source for national legislation.^[217]

Eid celebrations at the Mosque of Islamic Solidarity in Mogadishu (2006).

Islam entered the region very early on, as a group of persecuted Muslims had, at ProphetMuhammad's urging, sought refuge across the Red Sea in the Horn of Africa. Islam may thus have been introduced into Somalia well before the faith even took root in its place of origin.^[218]

In addition, the Somali community has produced numerous important Islamic figures over the centuries, many of whom have significantly shaped the course of Muslim learning and practice in the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and well beyond. Among these Islamic scholars is the 14th century Somali theologian and jurist Uthman bin Ali Zayla'i of Zeila, who wrote the single most authoritative text on the Hanafi school of Islam, consisting of four volumes known as theTabayin al-Haqa'iq li Sharh Kanz al-Daqa'iq.

Christianity is a minority religion in Somalia, with no more than 1,000 practitioners (about 0.01% of the population).^[219] According to estimates of the Diocese of Mogadishu (the territory of which coincides with the country) there were only about 100 Catholic practitioners in Somalia in 2004.^[220]

In 1913, during the early part of the colonial era, there were virtually no Christians in the Somali territories, with only about 100–200 followers coming from the schools and orphanages of the few Catholic missions in the British Somaliland protectorate.^[221] There were also no known Catholic missions in Italian Somaliland during the same period.^[222] In the 1970s, during the reign of Somalia's then Marxist government, church-run schools were closed and missionaries sent home. There has been no archbishop in the country since 1989, and the cathedral in Mogadishu was severely damaged during the civil war.

Some non-Somali ethnic minority groups also practice animism, which represents (in the case of the Bantu) religious traditions inherited from their ancestors in southeastern Africa.^[223]

Culture

Main article: Culture of Somalia

Cuisine

Main article: Somali cuisine

Various types of popular Somali dishes.

The cuisine of Somalia varies from region to region and consists of an exotic mixture of diverse culinary influences. It is the product of Somalia's rich tradition of trade and commerce. Despite the variety, there remains one thing that unites the various regional cuisines: all food is served halal. There are therefore no pork dishes, alcohol is not served, nothing that died on its own is eaten, and no blood is incorporated. Qaddo or lunch is often elaborate.

Varieties of bariis (rice), the most popular probably being basmati, usually serve as the main dish. Spices like cumin, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and sage are used to aromatize these different rice dishes. Somalis serve dinner as late as 9 pm. During Ramadan, dinner is often served afterTarawih prayers – sometimes as late as 11 pm.

Xalwo or halva is a popular confection served during special occasions such as Eid celebrations or wedding receptions. It is made from sugar, corn starch, cardamom powder, nutmeg powder and ghee. Peanuts are also sometimes added to enhance texture and flavor.^[224] After meals, homes are traditionally perfumed using frankincense (lubaan) or incense (cuunsi), which is prepared inside an incense burner referred to as a dabqaad.

Music

Main article: Music of Somalia

Somali singer Aar Maanta performing with his band.

Somalia has a rich musical heritage centered on traditional Somali folklore. Most Somali songs are pentatonic; that is, they only use five pitches per octave in contrast to a heptatonic (seven note) scale such as the major scale. At first listen, Somali music might be mistaken for the sounds of nearby regions such as Ethiopia, Sudan or the Arabian Peninsula, but it is ultimately recognizable by its own unique tunes and styles. Somali songs are usually the product of collaboration between lyricists (midho), songwriters (laxan) and singers ('codka or "voice").^[225]

Literature

Main article: Literature of Somalia

Somali scholars have for centuries produced many notable examples of Islamic literature ranging from poetry to Hadith. With the adoption of the Latin alphabet in 1972 as the nation's standard orthography, numerous contemporary Somali authors have also released novels, some of which have gone on to receive worldwide acclaim. Of these modern writers, Nuruddin Farah is probably the most celebrated. Books such as From a Crooked Rib and Links are considered important literary achievements, works which have earned Farah, among other accolades, the 1998 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.^[226] Faarax M.J. Cawl is another prominent Somali writer who is perhaps best known for his Dervish era novel, Ignorance is the enemy of love.

Architecture

Main article: Architecture of Somalia

Eyl castle

Somali architecture is a rich and diverse tradition of engineering and designing multiple differentconstruction types such as stone cities, castles, citadels, fortresses, mosques, temples,aqueducts, lighthouses, towers and tombs during the ancient, medieval and early modern periods in Somalia, as well as the fusion of Somalo-Islamic architecture with Occidental designs incontemporary times.

In ancient Somalia, pyramidical structures known in Somali as taalo were a popular burial style, with hundreds of these drystone monuments scattered around the country today. Houses were built of dressed stone similar to the ones in Ancient Egypt,^[227] and there are examples ofcourtyards and large stone walls such as the Wargaade Wall enclosing settlements.

The adoption of Islam in the early medieval era of Somalia's history brought Islamic architectural influences from Arabia and Persia, which stimulated a shift from drystone and other related materials in construction to coral stone, sundried bricks, and the widespread use of limestone in Somali architecture. Many of the new architectural designs such as mosques were built on the ruins of older structures, a practice that would continue over and over again throughout the following centuries.^[228]

See also

Somalia portal

Main article: Outline of Somalia

• Index of Somalia-related articles

References

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149. ^ Suzanne G. Frayser, Thomas J. Whitby, Studies in human sexuality: a selected guide, (Libraries Unlimited: 1995), p. 257.
150. ^ "Male Circumcision and AIDS: The Macroeconomic Impact of a Health Crisis by Eric Werker, Amrita Ahuja, and Brian Wendell :: NEUDC 2007 Papers :: Northeast Universities Development Consortium Conference" (PDF). Center for International Development at Harvard University. Retrieved 2010-12-30.
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156. ^ Puntland State of Somalia – Ministry of Education – Education
157. ^ Puntland State of Somalia – Ministry of Education – Girls' education
158. ^ Puntland State of Somalia – Ministry of Education – Children's education
159. ^ Puntland State of Somalia – Ministry of Education – Rural education
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169. ^ The Arab countries demand Australian sheep and lamb –Farmonline
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171. ^ "Government of Punt Land State of Somalia, Lootah Investment sign strategic agreements worth Dhs170m". Ameinfo.com. Retrieved 2010-12-30.
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174. ^ Gettleman, Jeffrey (2011-04-14). "Somalia, Wobbly on Ground, Seeks Control of Its Airspace". The New York Times.
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176. ^ ^a b "Central Bank of Somalia – Payment system". Somalbanca.org. Retrieved 2010-12-30.
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178. ^ ^a b "Decades of community service recognised with award". Tower Hamlets Recorder. 13 April 2007. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
179. ^ ^a b "Freeing Finance: If money makes the world go round, Dahabshiil CEO Abdirashid Duale makes sure it goes to the right people". Forbescustom.com. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
180. ^ Reuters May 21, 2008 (2008-05-21). "Canada's Africa Oil Starts Somalia Seismic Survey". Theepochtimes.com. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
181. ^ "Exploration rights in Somalia for Chinese oil giant CNOOC". Oilmarketer.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
182. ^ Surficial Deposits of Uraniam in the Galmudug State of Somalia – Developments in mining the uranium of Somalia
183. ^ Mark Hawthorne (February 4, 2009). "You're not sacked, you've been realigned". Melbourne: The Age. Retrieved November 10, 2009.
184. ^ "News/2150990/ Range Resources Ltd. – 2nd Quarter Activities". Tradingmarkets.com. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
185. ^ "Somalia business keen to join forces for peace". Af.reuters.com. 2010-05-23. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
186. ^ "Newly-found Somali company to bring peace to country". World.globaltimes.cn. 2010-05-24. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
187. ^ ^a b c Telecom Firms Thrive in Somalia Despite War, Shattered Economy – The Wall Street Journal
188. ^ Christopher J. Coyne, After war: the political economy of exporting democracy, (Stanford University Press, 2008), p.154.
189. ^ Kwame Karikari, Press freedom in Africa: Challenges and opportunities, Public Policy Research, Volume 11, Issue 3, pages 184–186, September 2004.
190. ^ "Somalia gets new navy force after years of absence". Shanghaidaily.com. 2009-06-14. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
191. ^ "New Police Academy Opens in Somalia". Content.undp.org. 2005-12-10. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
192. ^ "Somalia: Puntland to start construction of new Navy base". Horseedmedia.net. 2010-05-31. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
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194. ^ ^a b Geoffrey Gilbert, World poverty, (ABC-CLIO: 2004), p.111
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203. ^ Mogadishu
204. ^ Hargeisa
205. ^ Bosaso
206. ^ Gaalkacyo
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Bibliography

• Abdullahi, Mohamed Diriye, Culture and Customs of Somalia, (Greenwood Press: 2001)
• Cassanelli, Lee V., The shaping of Somali society: reconstructing the history of a pastoral people, 1600–1900, (University of Pennsylvania Press: 1982)
• Cerulli, Enrico, Somalia: Scritti Vari Editi ed Inediti, (Istituto poligrafico dello Stato: 1957)
• Hess, Robert L. Italian Colonialism in Somalia, (University of Chicago: 1966)
• Laitin, David D., Politics, Language, and Thought: The Somali Experience, (University Of Chicago Press: 1977)
• Lewis, I.M., Pastoral Democracy: A study on Pastoralism and Politics among the Northern Somali clans, (Ohio University Press: 1958)
• Mauri, Arnaldo, Banking Development in Somalia, SSRN 958442 (1971).
• Mukhtar, Mohamed Haji, Arabic Sources on Somalia, (Somali National University: 1987).
• Van Notten, Michael, The Law of the Somalis: A Stable Foundation for Economic Development in the Horn of Africa, First Printing edition, (The Red Sea Press: 2005)

External links

Find more about Somalia on Wikipedia's sister projects:
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• Transitional Federal Government of Somalia official website
• Somalia entry at The World Factbook
• Somalia web resources provided by GovPubs at the University of Colorado–Boulder Libraries
• Somalia at the Open Directory Project
• Wikimedia Atlas of Somalia
• Somalia travel guide from Wikitravel

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world ignores Somalia disaster The Australian - Hamish MacDonald - ‎31 minutes ago‎ AUSTRALIA has become one of the top global donors to the famine in southern Somalia after Canberra announced an additional contribution of $20 million. This, combined with another $20m of Australian aid funding reallocated by the World Food Program, ... Africa: in the name of humanity, we must mobilise worldwide Sydney Morning Herald - ‎27 minutes ago‎ "The compassionate impluse to help our fellow human beings has never wavered" ... UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Photo: Reuters Across the Horn of Africa, people are starving. A catastrophic combination of conflict, high food prices and drought has ... UN to hold Horn of Africa emergency talks in Rome Hindustan Times - ‎Jul 23, 2011‎ The UN food agency FAO will host emergency talks on the Horn of Africa drought crisis in Rome on Monday as aid groups scramble to raise money for an estimated 12 million people on the brink of starvation. UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has called on ... World Bank pledges $500 million for drought-stricken Horn of Africa region Economic Times - ‎5 hours ago‎ ROME: TheWorld Bank on Monday pledged more than $500 million (348 million euros) to aid the drought-strickenHorn of Africa region, asUnited Nations aid chiefs met in Rome to discuss ramping up relief efforts. The bulk of the money will go towards ... Famine only the first challenge The Australian - ‎31 minutes ago‎ THE case for global help in support of the millions affected by the catastrophic famine in the Horn of Africa is incontrovertible. It was made eloquently in our pages yesterday by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Andrew Mitchell, ... UN talks on Africa drought crisis BBC News - ‎9 hours ago‎ The BBC's Andrew Harding says getting aid deeper into Somalia "is very slow, very complicated and... very dangerous"" The world has "failed to ensure food security", France's agriculture minister has said at the UN food agency crisis talks on East ... DEC East Africa Appeal hits £30m Civil Society Media - ‎17 minutes ago‎ The Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for the famine crisis in the horn of Africa has raised £30m just under three weeks after launch. Unlike other recent natural disasters, such as the Japanese tsunami or the Haiti earthquake, coverage of the ... Aid reaches drought-ravaged Somalia AFP - ‎Jul 24, 2011‎ NAIROBI — The International Red Cross said Sunday it had handed out 400 tonnes of food in drought-hit parts of rebel-held southern Somalia as the UN prepares to host emergency talks on the crisis in the region. "The distribution look place in the ... Famine in Somalia is 'immoral': UN aid coordinator AFP - Dario Thuburn - ‎Jul 23, 2011‎ ROME — With the world scrambling to rescue 12 million people on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa, UN emergency official Cristina Amaral said the fact that children are dying of hunger is "immoral". As head of emergency operations in Africa ... All 140 related articles »

Related Somalia Horn of Africa Famine Ethiopia Kenya World Food Programme Timeline of articles Number of sources covering this story Somalia: U.N. Hosts Emergency Meeting ‎2 hours ago‎ - TIME World Bank pledges $500 million for drought-stricken regions of Africa ‎6 hours ago‎ - Economic Times UN urges more donations to tackle Africa famine ‎8 hours ago‎ - ABC Online Somalia famine group holds first local fundraiser ‎17 hours ago‎ - CTV.ca National, local relief efforts underway for East Africa famine and drought ‎19 hours ago‎ - CTV.ca Australia minister pleads for food aid for Somalia ‎Jul 24, 2011‎ - The Associated Press Images Sydney Morning ... swissinfo.ch CNN Internation... Capital FM Keny... The Guardian BBC News Boston Globe Times LIVE Capital FM Keny... All related images » Videos Somalia famine: Islamists keep aid workers out EUX.TV  -  5 hours ago Watch video WFP asks international community for food aid ntvkenya  -  8 hours ago Watch video Millions of Kenyans in need of humanitarian assistance Al Jazeera  -  20 hours ago Watch video FAO calls for emergency aid for 12 mn people in E. Africa AFP  -  Jul 24, 2011 Watch video Drought crisis: WFP seeks international assistance ntvkenya  -  Jul 24, 2011 Watch video All related videos »

• Famine · 
• Aid · 
• Malnutrition

East Africa crisis could have been prevented with early action

8 Jul 2011

Alison Rusinow: Early warning systems showed this drought was going to be very serious so why has it taken so long for the world to wake up?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487