Location:
Somalia (Somali Democratic Republic) forms the area
known as the Horn of Africa, bordered on the North by the Gulf of
Aden, on the East and South by the Indian Ocean, on the Southwest
by Kenya, on the West by Ethiopia, and on the Northwest by Djibouti.
Area:
637,657 square km (about 270,000 square miles)
Population:
In 1991, the United Nations estimated a
population of 7.7 million;
however, the Somalis generally estimate
their population to have been 8.4 million prior to the mass exodus
of the civil war.
Religion:
100% Muslim
Principle Towns:
Mogadishu (Capital of Somalia), Hargeisa,
Kismaio, Baidoa, Burao, Merca, Bosaso,
Beleduen, Galkayo, Garowe
Monetary Unit:
$1,733 Somali Shilling = $1 Canadian
Language:
Somali is the official language (written in 1974)
Arabic, English, and Italian are used by some people.
Exports:
Livestock, hides and skins, myrrh and frankincense,
banana, firewood, charcoal, fish, oil seeds, cotton and canned
meat.
Imports:
Building materials, machinery, sugar, tea, paper
materials, gold and army equipment.
Agriculture
Products:
Millet sugar-cane, wheat, mango, oil
seeds, citrus, pawpaw, maize, cotton and bananas.
Minerals:
Iron, Salt, Limestone, cynnite, feldspar, gypsum,
manganese, beryl, mica, asbestos and molybdinite.
|
