INDEPENDENT ISLAMIC STATES

Somalia

Official Name: Somali Democratic Republic (SO)

Capital   : Mogadishu

Important Cities: Hergeisa, Burao, Kismayo, Berbera, Marka. Bini Bassasso

Area: 637.657 km2

Population        : 15,500,000 (2021)[1]  25% of the population lives in cities.

Ethnicity: The Somali people are composed entirely of Somalis. The proportion of European minorities settled in colonial times is quite low. In addition to those living within the borders of Somalia, there are Somalis living in Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, South Yemen and various Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia. All Somalis are Sunni Muslims.

Language: The official languages are Somali and Arabic. English and Italian are also official. .

Religion: The official religion is Islam. Almost all of the Somali people are Sunni Muslims.

Geographical Situation: Somalia, one of the East African countries and located in the region called the horn of Africa, is surrounded by Djibouti from the north-west, the Gulf of Aden from the north, the Indian Ocean from the east and south, Ethiopia from the west, and Kenya from the south-west. The most important rivers are Vebi Shabella and Vebi Cuba rivers. These two rivers merge in the city of Yemame and flow into the Indian Ocean. 2% of its territory is agricultural land, 45% is grassland and 14% is forest and bushland. The northern part is mostly covered with mountains and hills. The country generally has an arid and hot climate. The average annual temperature in the capital Mogadishu is 30.2 degrees and the average annual precipitation is 402 mm.

Government: Due to frequent coups, a certain political authority could not be established in the country.

International Organisations: UN, OIC, Union of Arab States, Organisation of African Unity, African Antilles and Pacific Convention, IMF, Islamic Development Bank.

Political Parties: Since there is no political authority in the country, political parties with official status have not been established.

Administrative Division: It consists of 16 provinces and 78 districts.

History: Somalia met Islam before the hijrah. At that time, today's Somali lands were under the rule of Najashi, the king of Abyssinia, famous for his justice. The Muslims who fled from the persecution of the polytheists in Mecca and emigrated to Abyssinia on the advice of the Messenger of Allah (s.a.s.) first went to the city of Zeyla in today's Somali lands. Somalis recognised Islam through them and accepted it very quickly. Therefore, Islam spread rapidly among the Somali people. Later on, the Muslim callers sent by the Messenger of Allah (s.a.s.) to Yemen to preach Islam travelled from there to Somalia and carried out preaching activities in Somalia. These efforts had a great impact on the Somali people and before the half of the first Hijri century, all Somalis became Muslims. Somalia remained under the rule of the Abyssinian kingdom for a long time. In the following periods, different kingdoms ruled the country. From the end of the 14th century, Somalia started to be counted among the territories of the Ottoman Empire. Western colonialists started to attack Somalia after the mid-19th century. In 1884, Britain captured northern Somalia. In 1887, the Italians took over part of southern Somalia. The Italians occupied the remaining parts of South Somalia until 1927. Muslim leader Mawla Muhammad bin Abdullah recaptured the British-occupied region with the movement he started in 1901. With the independence of British Somalia, the two Somalis united to form the independent Somali Republic. Aden Abdullah was appointed as the first president of this republic. On 21 April 1969, Major General Mohamed Siyad Berri, a socialist, took over the government with a military coup d'état and killed the civilian president, Shermarke. As soon as he took power, Siyad Berri dissolved the parliament, closed political parties and abrogated the constitution. Berri made efforts to establish a socialist structure in the country. For this purpose, he nationalised banks and various economic institutions. In the meantime, he waged war against Islam, which he claimed to be the biggest enemy of the scientific socialism adopted by him. In order to break the connection of the people with the Islamic works written in Somali language, he started to print Somali written in Arabic letters with Latin letters. He executed many scholars who opposed his practices. Taking the hunger in Somalia as an opportunity, Christian aid organisations entered the country and carried out intensive missionary activities. Christian aid organisations both propagated Christianity while distributing aid in the country and sent selected Somali children to church organisations in Europe. On 4 December 1992, the UN Security Council passed a resolution approving a US-led military operation in Somalia, and the military operation called 'Operation Hope' was launched. However, developments revealed that the aim of the operation was not to save the Somali people, but to turn Somalia into a military base to protect US interests in the horn of Africa.[2]

External problems: The most important external problem of Somalia is the Ogaden issue. Ogaden is a region mostly inhabited by Muslims of Somali origin. A significant part of this region, which extends like a promontory into Somalia, was left to Abyssinia in accordance with an agreement signed between Abyssinia and Britain in 1954, after the British occupiers began to withdraw from the region. The aim of the British in leaving this region to Abyssinia, whose name was later changed to Ethiopia, was to create a problem that would lead to a permanent conflict between Somalia and this country. What the British wanted was realised and the Ogaden issue became a constant problem between Somalia and Abyssinia (Ethiopia). This issue also led to a war between the two countries in 1977-78. The Soviet Union's support for Ethiopia in the war caused Somalia to lose the war. In order to mend its relations with the Soviet Union, Somali government signed an agreement with Ethiopia on 4 April 1988 and officially recognised Ethiopia's sovereignty over the Ogaden region. However, this agreement did not fundamentally resolve the issue. The Ogaden Liberation Front representing the Ogaden Muslims continues its struggle.

Internal problems: The most important internal problem of Somalia is the political instability and internal conflict that emerged after the removal of the dictator Siyad Berri. The tribal structure in the country also has an effect on this. In fact, the main reason for this power struggle based on tribalism is that a significant part of the population was deprived of Islamic knowledge and consciousness through the ignorance policy implemented in the past. On one front of the civil war that emerged after Siyad Berri's era, there are the supporters of Ali Mahdi Mohamed, who is from the Hawiye tribe and who was declared the interim president after Berri left the country, and on the other front there is the Somali National Union led by Mohamed Farah Aydid from the Habar tribe. After the UN forces entered Somalia, these groups partially suspended the war among themselves and started to fight against foreign forces. Aydid's group was the most effective against the UN forces. However, even though the foreign powers withdrew completely in March 1994, the internal power issue could not be resolved. The civil war and power struggle in the country caused more than 1 million Somalis to seek refuge in neighbouring countries.

Islam in the country: Somalis are proud of the fact that Islam entered their country before it entered Medina. Somali people have preserved their Islamic identity for centuries. According to the tradition, every family should have a well-educated person who can teach Islam to the other members of the family and who knows the Holy Qur'an by heart. During the colonisation of Africa by European countries, Somalia was divided between Britain and Italy, and the missionary work carried out in Somalia could not change the Islamic identity of the people of this country. However, the pressures of the colonisers led to the weakening of Islamic education and prevented the continuation of the tradition mentioned above. After the independence of Somalia in 1960, those who took over the government in the country adopted a liberal approach and did not make any contribution to Islamic studies. On 21 October 1969, Muhammad Siyad Berri, who took over the government of Somalia with a coup d'état, put obstacles in front of all Islamic studies. Despite all the pressures of Berri, the struggle of the scholars against the un-Islamic practices did not stop. In an ultimatum given on 14 July 1989, the scholars called on the government to end its anti-Islamic practices. In addition to the resistance of the scholars against the dictator Siyad Berri's practices aiming to erase the traces of Islam from Somalia, a number of organisations were formed aiming to make Islam dominant in the state and to protect the Islamic identity of the Somali people. The most established of these was the Muslim Brotherhood. In addition, the Sunnah Jamaat and Magam Islam, which have a Salafi understanding, are among the important Islamic communities that still exist in this country. Today, the Islamic Movement in Somalia is led by the Islamic Unity Party. The Islamic Unity Party was founded in 1985. However, due to the repressive practices of the dictator Siyad Berri, like other Islamic communities, it was carrying out its activities under very difficult conditions and secretly. The Islamic Unity Party held a congress in Djibouti on 29 November 1991 and announced to the world that they aimed to make Islam dominant again in Somalia through their struggle. While the power struggles of other political groups in the country were generally based on tribalist understanding, the Islamic Unity Party declared that it defended the unity and integrity of Somalia and that it was against the fragmentation of Somali Muslims with tribalist understanding. The Islamic Unity Party had to establish some armed training camps due to the conditions created by the armed struggle of the tribal groups with a Western liberal understanding against the dictator Siyad Berri. After the removal of dictator Siyad Berri from power in January 1991, the power struggle between Ali Mohamed Mahdi and Farah Aydid, who belonged to the two major tribes of the country, also affected the Islamic Unity Party. In December 1991, a clash broke out between Farah Aydid's forces and members of the Islamic Unity Party in Mereke, resulting in many deaths. After this incident, the Islamic Unity Party engaged in various activities to further increase its military power. The Islamic Unity Party is strongest in the Ogaden region, which harbours three million people, almost half of the Somali population. Its armed forces are mostly located in this region. However, it also has supporters and armed forces in other parts of the country. Some important centres of the capital Mogadishu had also fallen into the hands of the Islamic Unity Party before the American occupation forces entered Somalia. We can say that the achievements of the Islamic Unity Party were among the reasons that led the US to send occupation forces to Somalia. In particular, this party's cooperation with the Sudanese government and its role in the distribution of the aid that Islamic aid organisations started to send through Sudan in order to stop the hunger disaster in Somalia worried the USA and the western powers. Various sources point out that the Islamic Unity Party has direct relations with Islamic communities struggling in various East African countries and with the Sudanese government. The political leader of the Islamic Unity Party is Ali Hivar Samiye. Its official spokesperson is Mahmoud Osman. The head of military operations is Hassan Dahir Uveys. Other Islamic organisations in Somalia generally avoid armed struggle and concentrate on preaching.[3]

Economy: The Somali economy is mostly based on nomadic animal husbandry and agriculture. The share of income from agricultural products and livestock in the gross domestic product is 65 per cent. 72% of the working population is employed in these sectors. In Somalia, where only 2% of the land is suitable for agriculture, mostly cereals, millet, corn, banana, cotton, sugar cane and various fruits and vegetables are produced. As it has a long sea coast, Somalia is also suitable for fishing. However, fishing is not sufficiently developed. A certain amount of forest products are also obtained in Somalia.

Currency: Somali shilling (SoSh)

National income per capita: 347 USD[4] .

Foreign trade: It exports livestock, various agricultural products and leather. The main imports are foodstuffs, petroleum products, machinery, transport vehicles and spare parts and chemicals. Foreign trade is mostly with Saudi Arabia, Italy, USA and England.

Industry: Industry is quite backward. There is an oil refinery. Apart from this, the most prominent industrial establishments are the factories producing foodstuffs, which are not very many in number. There are also a small number of weaving and garment workshops and small-scale facilities producing plastic goods, metal goods, construction materials, paint, soap, etc. The share of industrial income in gross domestic product is 4%. Approximately 4% of the working population is employed in the industrial sector.

Energy: All of the electrical energy is obtained from thermal power plants. The average annual electricity consumption per person is 12 kw/hour.

Transport: There is a small airport open to international traffic in the capital Mogadishu. Besides, there are airports used for domestic transport in 4 big cities. There is also a harbour in the capital where loading and unloading is carried out with primitive methods and large ships cannot dock. There are harbours in Berbera and other coastal cities. Somalia has 21.300 km of highways, 2800 km of which are asphalted. In this country, there is one motorised transport vehicle for 234 people on average.

Education: There are about 1200 primary schools, 85 general secondary schools and 25 vocational secondary schools in Somalia. 11 per cent of primary school children and 4 per cent of secondary school children can benefit from this education. Somalia has only one university. Besides, there are 5 higher schools and 3 research institutes. The rate of university enrolment among university-age students in this country is approximately 3%. The rate of literacy is 55 per cent. Informal traditional education has an effect on the high literacy rate.

Health: There are approximately 550 doctors in Somalia and there is one doctor for every 12.750 people. Hunger, misery, poverty, disease and mass deaths...

[1]   www.ticaret.gov.tr  (November-2021 Access)

[2]   Encyclopaedia of Islam, TDV.

[3]   www.enfal.de(November-2021 Access)

[4]   www.ticaret.gov.tr  (November-2021 Access)