| Estimated population of Somalia is 9,832,017 according to an official census in 1975 taken by the Somali Government. The largest ethnic group is Somali which constitutes 85% of the population, followed by Bantu and other non-Somali constituting 15% (including Arabs 30,000). Because of a large number of nomads and refugee movements in response to famine and clan warfare, population counting is complicated. Sunni Muslim is the predominant religion. Official language is Somali, and other spoken languages include Arabic, Italian and English. Literacy level stands at 37.8% of which 49.7% is male and 25.8% is female.
In 1960, British Somaliland and the Italian Somaliland joined and formed the new nation of Somalia. The country was stabilized for a couple of decades once Barre’s coup resulted in an authoritarian socialist rule; however, once this regime has collapsed in 1991, Somalia found itself in anarchy and factional fighting. In 1991, clans in the north declared the independent republic of Somaliland which includes the regions of Awdal, Woqooyi Galbeed, Togdheer, Sanaag and Sool. However, this republic is not recognized by any government. Bari, Nugaal, and northern Mudug regions are part of the self-declared autonomous state of Puntland which suffered some civil strife after it was established in 1998. UN established a two-year humanitarian effort which helped to relieve the famine; however, the order is still to be restored after the UN withdrawal in 1995.
The Government of Kenya under the sponsorship of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) initiated a two-year peace process which was concluded in October 2004 with the election of Abdullahi YUSUF Ahmed as President of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia. “TFIs” (Somalia Transitional Federal Institutions), the interim government that included a 275-member parliamentary body known as the Transitional Federal Assembly (TFA), was established after the process. President YUSUF resigned late in 2008 while talks between the TFG and the opposition the ARS (Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia) were underway in Djibouti.
Later on, TFG and the opposition ARS held UN sponsored talks which resulted in the creation of the TFG-ARS unity government in 2009. After the creation of this government Ethiopian military forces withdrew from the country. With the addition of 275 ARS members the TFA presence in the parliament was increased to 550 seats. On January 31, 2009 the parliament elected Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as president, who appointed Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, son of a former president of Somalia, as prime minister on February 13, 2009.
Today, the TFG continues to work with international donors to help build the governance capacity of the TFIs and work toward national elections in 2011.
Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Ethnic Somalis number around 15-17 million and are principally concentrated in Somalia (more than 9 million[1]), Ethiopia (4.6 million[2]), Yemen (a little under 1 million), northeastern Kenya (about half a million), Djibouti (350,000), and an unknown but large number live in parts of the Middle East, North America and Europe.
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