Interim Government

Somalia occupies the area known as the "horn" of Africa, with coastline fronting the Gulf of Aden on the north and the Indian Ocean to the east. It is bordered on the northwest by Djibouti, on the west by Ethiopia, and by Kenya to the southwest. The country's borders contain some 638,000 sq km (246,300 sq mi). Since the 1990s, political disturbances and large numbers of nomads and refugees have rendered population estimates unreliable. The last official census was taken in 1975; in 2002, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency estimated the population at 7,753,310. Recent United Nations (UN) estimates place the national population at around 10 million, with as much as 25% living in urban areas.

Somalia is unique in Africa, being ethnically homogeneous. Over 95% of the population characterize themselves as "Somali." Nonetheless, divisions between family lineages ("clans"), have tended to weaken the unity of the...