A brief history of....Somalia

The British Somaliland was a British protectorate in the north part of the Horn of Africa, and later part of Somalia and presently the unrecognised Republic of Somaliland.

Egypt dominated the area in the 1870s, but withdrew in 1884, upon which the British established a protectorate and garrisoned it from Aden. The protectorate was administered from British India until 1898, then by the Foreign Office, and after 1905 the Colonial Office.

During the East African Campaign, the protectorate was "occupied by Italy" in August 1940, but recaptured by the British in March 1941. The protectorate gained independence as the State of Somaliland on 26 June 1960. Days later, as a referendum indicated support for unification with Italian Somaliland, it joined with that territory to form a new Somali Republic (Somalia) on 1 July 1960.

After the breakdown of Somalia's central government in 1991, the former area of British Somaliland declared independence in May 1991 as the Republic of Somaliland, which regards itself as a successor to the briefly independent State of Somaliland.

Somalia has had no effective national government since 1991. In the northwest and northeast, there are breakaway regions namely Somaliland and Puntland. In the rest of the country there are various warlords. In 2000, the international community recognised the Transitional National Government, originally headed by Abdulkassim Salat Hassan, as the government for the entire country. The government has not even been able to enter the capital because of the violence.

Somalia is the quintessential failed state. Peace has been established in some regions, but Somalia has only a limited government in the Northwest and no recognized government in the South. In these circumstances the private sector has been surprisingly innovative. Competition thrives in markets where transactions are simple, such as retail and construction. In more complex sectors, such as telecommunications and electricity supply, the private solutions are flawed but impressive: coverage has expanded since the 1980s, and prices are attractive compared with those in other African countries

To cope with the absence of the rule of law, private enterprises in Somalia have been using foreign jurisdictions or institutions to help with some tasks, operating within networks of trust to strengthen property rights, and simplifying transactions until they require neither. Somalia’s private sector experience suggests that it may be easier than is commonly thought for basic systems of finance and some infrastructure services to function where government is extremely weak or absent.

On October 14, 2004 Somali members of parliament elected warlord Abdullahi Yusuf, previously president of Puntland, to be the next president. Because of the situation in Mogadishu, the election was held in a sports centre in Nairobi, Kenya. Yusuf was elected transitional President by Somalia's transitional parliament. He won 189 of the 275 votes from members of parliament. The session of Parliament was also held in neighbouring Kenya. His government is recognized by most western nations as legitimate, although his actual authority is questionable.

Many other small political organizations exist, some clan-based, others seeking a Somalia free from clan-based politics (such as the United Somali Front). Many of them have come into existence since the new president was chosen.