Somalia

REGION: East Africa
CAPITAL CITY: Mogadishu
POPULATION:
LAND AREA: The size of Arizona and New Mexico combined

What was once Somalia is largely desert — only 2 percent of the land is arable — and a significant portion of its population is nomadic, moving with their livestock as the seasons and the oases permit. Drought, dust storms and flooding are among the greatest challenges faced by nomadic herders and settled farmers alike. Poverty is endemic, and famine is recurrent. Also recurrent have been disputes over areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya that are inhabited by ethnic Somalis. (In 1960, "Somalia" became an independent country, its boundaries the result — not of historic African ties — but of a European-driven merger between a British protectorate and an Italian colony.) In 1991, Somalia's national government collapsed. Since then, no effective central government has emerged. A U.N.-backed transitional government was put in place in the south in 2004; in the north, the self-proclaimed state of Somaliland and region of Puntland have managed their own affairs.