Somaliland

Flag of Somaliland

Somaliland is a territory at the north west of Somalia in the Horn of Africa. It comprises 5 of the 18 regions (gobolka) of Somalia, the region between Ethiopia, Djibouti and the Gulf of Aden, an area of about 137,600 km². The population has been estimated at about 3.5 million. The capital is Hargeisa[?] with a population of about 300,000.

Formerly the British Somaliland Protectorate, it merged with Italian Somaliland[?] in 1960. The prime minister of British Somaliland, Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal[?], became a minister in the new republic of Somalia. He became Prime Minister in 1967 but a coup deposed him in 1969. In 1991, after the collapse of the government in Somalia, the territory asserted its independence as the Republic of Somaliland, although it has received little if any international recognition. Egal was elected president in 1993, re-elected in 1998 and remained in power until his death on 3 May 2002. The vice president Dahir Riyale Kahin[?] was declared the new president shortly afterwards.

Somaliland