Somalia
Somalia (officially Federal Republic of Somalia) is a country in Eastern Africa, with its capital at Mogadishu, and is home to roughly 19.0M people.
Its official languages are Arabic, Somali; the currency in circulation is Somali shilling (Sh); people from here are called Somali.
- »Somalia has the longest coastline of mainland Africa.
Somalia straddles the equator.
Somalia touches three neighbours: Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the northwest and Kenya to the southwest. Directions run from one centre to the other.
Mogadishu was a major Indian Ocean trading port for centuries, visited by Ibn Battuta in the 14th century, who described it as a city of great size.
472,582 km² (182,465 sq mi), 51st largest of 198 countries and territories on file, almost exactly the size of Turkmenistan.
Population 19,009,151, 68th of 198 on file. That averages 40 per km² (104 per sq mi).
The five-pointed star stands for the five regions where Somalis live, including parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. The light blue was originally chosen in honour of the UN.