Somalia
...of Somaliland to form the Somali republic. The Somali state currently exists largely in a de jure capacity; Somalia has a weak but largely recognised central government authority that currently controls only the central region of Somalia, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which until recently controlled only Baidoa. De facto authority in the north of the country resides in the hands of Puntland, Maakhir, and Somaliland respectively. In the south of the country, no government exists at all, while various tribal militias battle for dominance or rule their own regions. Violence has plagued Mogadishu, the capital, since warlords ousted former President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
While many of these self-proclaimed states acknowledge the authority of the TFG (Puntland, Southwest,Galmudug, Maakhir, Jubbaland) and maintain their declaration of autonomy within a federated Somalia, Somaliland maintains its declaration of independence and does not recognize the TFG as their governing authority. Somaliland in return, also does not recognize TFG.
Somalia has been continuously inhabited by numerous and varied ethnic groups, some of Oromo or other cushitic ancestry, but the majority were Somalis, for the last 2,500 years. From the 1st century numerous ports like ancient Opone (now Hafun) and ancient Mosylon-Bandar Gori were trading with Roman and Greek sailors. The northwestern part of current Somalia was part of the Kingdom of Aksum from about the 3rd century to the 7th. By the early medieval period (700 AD–1200AD), Islam became firmly established especially with the founding of Mogadishu in 900AD. The late medieval period (1201AD-1500AD) saw the rise of numerous Somali city-states and kingdoms. In northwestern Somalia, the Sultanate of Adal (a multi-ethnic state comprised of Afars, Somalis and Hararis) with Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi as their leader in 1520AD,...
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