Autonomous administrative division
An autonomous administrative division is a subdivision or dependent territory of a country that has a degree of self-governance, or autonomy, from an external authority. It is either geographically distinct from the rest of the country or populated by a national minority. Decentralization of self-governing powers and functions to such divisions is a way for a national government to try to increase democratic participation or administrative efficiency or to defuse internal conflicts. Countries that include autonomous areas may be federations, or confederations. Autonomous areas can be divided into territorial autonomies, subregional territorial autonomies, local autonomies. Other Autonomous regions include, Puntland, Ethiopian Controlled Somalia, The Netherlands, Aruba and Saint Maarten. British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies Jersey and the Isle of Man are self-governing Crown dependencies which are not part of the United Kingdom. Gibraltar is a self-governing overseas territory of the UK.
Most of the other 13 British Overseas Territories have autonomy in internal affairs through local legislatures. New Zealand dependent territoriesNew Zealand maintains nominal sovereignty over three Pacific Island nations; the Cook Islands and Niue are self-governing countries in free association with New Zealand that maintain some international relationships in their own name. Tokelau remains an autonomous dependency of New Zealand; the Chatham Islands—despite having the designation of Territory—is an integral part of the country, situated within the New Zealand archipelago. The territory's council is not autonomous and has broadly the same powers as other local councils, although notably it can charge levies on goods entering or leaving the islands. Dutch constituent countriesAruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten are autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, each with their own parliament. In addition they enjoy autonomy in taxation matters as well as having their own currencies. French overseas collectivities, New Caledonia, Corsica The French constitution recognises three autonomous jurisdictions.
Corsica, a region of France, enjoys a greater degree of autonomy on matters such as tax and education compared to mainland regions. New Caledonia, a sui generis collectivity, French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity, are autonomous territories with their own government, legislature and constitution, they do not, have legislative powers for policy areas relating to law and order, border control or university education. Other smaller overseas collectivities have a lesser degree of autonomy through local legislatures; the five overseas regions, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion, are governed the same as mainland regions. In Ethiopia, "special woredas" are a subgroup of woredas that are organized around the traditional homelands of an ethnic minority, are outside the usual hierarchy of a kilil, or region; these woredas have many similarities to autonomous areas in other countries. Other areas that are autonomous in nature but not in name are areas designated for indigenous peoples, such as those of the Americas: Aboriginal Indian reserve and Indian reservation, in Canada and the United States.
The five comarcas indígenas of Panama. Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus in Albania. Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union Subcarpathian Ruthenia and Slovakia within Czechoslovakia. Grand Duchy of Finland of the Russian Empire. Magyar Autonomous Region of Socialist Republic of Romania Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. List of autonomous areas by country Autonomous administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China Autonomous administrative divisions of India Autonomous administrative divisions of Russia Autonomous administrative divisions of Spain Administrative division Region Devolution Personal union List of autonomous regions leaders Works cited M. Weller and S. Wolff, Self-governance and Conflict Resolution: Innovative Approaches to Institutional Design in Divided Societies. Abingdon, Routledge, 2005 From Conflict to Autonomy in Nicaragua: Lessons Learnt, report by Minority Rights Group International P.
M. Olausson and Islands, A Global Study of the Factors that determine Island Autonomy. Åbo: Åbo Akademi University Press, 2007. Thomas Benedikter, Solving Ethnic Conflict through Self-Government - A Short Guide to Autonomy in Europe and South Asia, EURAC Bozen 2009, http://www.eurac.edu/en/research/institutes/imr/Documents/Deliverable_No_9_Update_Set_educational_material.pdf Thomas Benedikter, The World's Modern Autonomy Systems, EURAC Bozen 2010.
Somalis
Somali are an ethnic group belonging to the Cushitic peoples inhabiting the Horn of Africa. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, part of the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family, they are predominantly Sunni Muslim. Ethnic Somalis number around 28-30 million and are principally concentrated in Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Somali diasporas are found in parts of the Middle East, African Great Lakes region, Southern Africa, North America and Western Europe. Samaale, the oldest common ancestor of several Somali clans, is regarded as the source of the ethnonym Somali; the name "Somali" is, in turn, held to be derived from the words soo and maal, which together mean "go and milk" — a reference to the ubiquitous pastoralism of the Somali people. Another plausible etymology proposes that the term Somali is derived from the Arabic for "wealthy", again referring to Somali riches in livestock. Alternatively, the ethnonym Somali is believed to have been derived from the Automoli, a group of warriors from ancient Egypt described by Herodotus, who were of Meshwesh origin according to Flinders Petrie.
Asmach is thought to have been their Egyptian name, with Automoli being a Greek derivative of the Hebrew word Semoli. An Ancient Chinese document from the 9th century CE referred to the northern Somalia coast —, part of a broader region in Northeast Africa known as Barbara, in reference to the area's Berber inhabitants — as Po-pa-li; the first clear written reference of the sobriquet Somali, dates back to the 15th century. During the conflict between the Sultanate of Ifat based at Zeila and the Solomonic Dynasty, the Abyssinian emperor had one of his court officials compose a hymn celebrating a military victory over the Sultan of Ifat's eponymous troops. Simur was an ancient Harari alias for the Somali people. Somalis overwhelmingly prefer the demonym Somali over the incorrect Somalian since the former is an endonym, while the latter is an exonym with double suffixes; the hypernym of the term Somali from a geopolitical sense is Horner and from a ethnic sense, it is Cushite. Ancient rock paintings, which date back 5000 years, have been found in the Northern Somalia.
These engravings depict early life in the territory. The most famous of these is the Laas Geel complex, it contains some of the earliest known rock art on the African continent and features many elaborate pastoralist sketches of animal and human figures. In other places, such as the northwestern Dhambalin region, a depiction of a man on a horse is postulated as being one of the earliest known examples of a mounted huntsman. Inscriptions have been found beneath many of the rock paintings, but archaeologists have so far been unable to decipher this form of ancient writing. During the Stone Age, the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished here with their respective industries and factories; the oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to 4th millennium BC. The stone implements from the Jalelo site in northern Somalia are said to be the most important link in evidence of the universality in palaeolithic times between the East and the West.
In antiquity, the ancestors of the Somali people were an important link in the Horn of Africa connecting the region's commerce with the rest of the ancient world. Somali sailors and merchants were the main suppliers of frankincense and spices, items which were considered valuable luxuries by the Ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians and Babylonians. According to most scholars, the ancient Land of Punt and its native inhabitants formed part of the ethnogenesis of the Somali people; the ancient Puntites were a nation of people that had close relations with Pharaonic Egypt during the times of Pharaoh Sahure and Queen Hatshepsut. The pyramidal structures and ancient houses of dressed stone littered around Somalia are said to date from this period. In the classical era, the Macrobians, who may have been ancestral to the Automoli or ancient Somalis, established a powerful tribal kingdom that ruled large parts of modern Somalia, they were reputed for their longevity and wealth, were said to be the "tallest and handsomest of all men".
The Macrobians were warrior seafarers. According to Herodotus' account, the Persian Emperor Cambyses II, upon his conquest of Egypt, sent ambassadors to Macrobia, bringing luxury gifts for the Macrobian king to entice his submission; the Macrobian ruler, elected based on his stature and beauty, replied instead with a challenge for his Persian counterpart in the form of an unstrung bow: if the Persians could manage to draw it, they would have the right to invade his country. The Macrobians were a regional power reputed for their advanced architecture and gold wealth, so plentiful that they shackled their prisoners in golden chains. After the collapse of Macrobia, several ancient city-states, such as Opone, Sarapion, Malao and Mosylon near Cape Guardafui, which competed with the Sabaeans and Axumites for the wealthy Indo-Greco-Roman trade flourished in Somalia; the birth of Islam on the opposite side of Somalia's Red Sea coast meant that Somali merchants and expatriates living in the Arabian Peninsula came under the influence of the new religion through their converted Arab Muslim trading partners.
With the migration of fleeing Muslim families from the Islamic world to Somalia in the early centuries of Islam, the peaceful conv
French Somaliland
French Somaliland was a French colony in the Horn of Africa. It existed between 1883 and 1967, it was established between 1883 and 1887, after the ruling Somalis and Afar sultans each signed a treaty with the French. The March 11, 1862 agreement the Afar sultan Raieta Dini Ahmet signed in Paris was a treaty where the Afars sold the territory of Obock for 10 000 thalaris, around 55 000 francs. On, that treaty was used by the captain of the Fleuriot de Langle to colonize the south of the bay of Tadjoura. In March 26, 1885 the French signed another treaty with the Somalis where the latter would become a protectorate under the French, no monetary exchange occurred and Somalis did not sign away any of their rights to the land, the agreement was to protect their land from outsiders with the help of the French. However, after the French sailors of the vessel Le Pingouin were mysteriously killed in Ambado in 1886, the French blamed first the British the Somalis and further used that incident to lay claim to the entire southern territory.
The French “Côte francaise des Somalis” is said to have been proposed by Mohamed Haji Dide of the Mahad'Ase branch of the Gadabuursi. He himself before the arrival of the French was prosperous merchant of the sultan, he came on to build the first Mosque in Djibouti City "Gami ar-Rahma" in 1891. The construction of the Imperial Ethiopian Railway west into Ethiopia turned the port of Djibouti into a boomtown of 15,000 at a time when Harar was the only city in Ethiopia to exceed that. Although the population fell after the completion of the line to Dire Dawa and the original company failed and required a government bail-out, the rail link allowed the territory to supersede the caravan-based trade carried on at Zeila and become the premier port for coffee and other goods leaving southern Ethiopia and the Ogaden through Harar; the railway continued to operate following the Italian conquest of Ethiopia but, following the tumult of the Second World War, the area became an overseas territory of France in 1946.
In 1967, French Somaliland was renamed the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas and, in 1977, it became the independent country of Djibouti. List of governors of French Somaliland List of French possessions and colonies French colonial empire Imbert-Vier, Simon. Frontières et limites à Djibouti durant la période coloniale. Université de Provence–Aix-Marseille I
Gadabuursi
The Gadabuursi known as Samaroon, is a northern Somali clan, a sub-division of the Dir clan family. As a Dir sub-clan, the Gadabuursi have immediate lineal ties with the Issa, the Surre, the Biimaal, the Bajimal, the Bursuk, the Madigan, the Gurgura, the Garre, Gariire, other Dir sub-clans and they have lineal ties with the Hawiye, Ajuraan, Gaalje'el clan groups, who share the same ancestor Samaale; the etymology of the name Gadabuursi, as described by writer Ferrand in Ethnographic Survey of Africa refers to Gada meaning people and Bur meaning mountain, hence Gadabuursi is believed to mean people of the mountains. Most Gadabuursi members are descendants of Sheikh Samaroon. However, Samaroon does not mean Gadabuursi, but rather represents only a sub-clan of the Gadabuursi clan family; the Gadabuursi in particular, is the only clan with a longstanding tradition of sultan. The Gadabuursi use the title Ugaas which king. Ughaz or Ugas. In terms of subsistence patterns, the Gadabuursi are sedentary agro-pastoralists, supplementing their cattle herding with cereal cultivation.
Based on research done by the Eritrean author'Abdulkader Saleh Mohammad' in his book'The Saho of Eritrea, the Saho people is said to have Somali origins from the Gadabuursi. The Gadabuursi reside traditionally within the Horn of Africa but do have settlements outside as well, they are the pre-dominant clan of the Awdal region. They partially inhabit the neighboring region of Woqooyi Galbeed, reside in many cities within that province; the Gadabuursi are the second largest clan by population in Somaliland. Within Somalia, they are known to be the 5th largest clan, they are found in Djibouti, where they form one of the major clan groups. Within Djibouti they have lived in 2 of the 7 major neighborhoods in Djibouti; however most of the Gadabuursi inhabit the Somali Region of Ethiopia where their paramount chief, the Ugaas resides. In present day Awdal, most of the prominent elders have their main venues in the capital city of the region, Borama. However, the paramount chief of the Gadabuursi, the Ugaas, has his main venue in Ethiopia.
The Gadabuursi is the second largest sub-clan within the borders of the Somali region of Ethiopia based on the Ethiopian population census. Outside of the Somali region, they live in the Oromia region reaching the town of Metehara along with the Afar region. Today, the clan holds vice-presidency in both the Ethiopian Somali Region, in Somali Land. In the Somali Region of Ethiopia they inhabit both the Awbere district in the Faafan Zone and the Dembel district in the Sitti Zone; the Harrawa Valley located in the Gadabuursi country, straddles both districts. They inhabit the Gursum woreda where they are the majority and the Jigjiga woreda where they make up a large part of the Faafan Zone; the Gadabuursi, along with the Issa represent the most indigenous Somali tribes in Harar. The Gadabuursi partially inhabit Ayesha, Shinile and Afdem woreda's, they reside along the northeastern fringe of the chartered city-state of Dire Dawa, which borders the Dembel district, but in the city itself. The 2014 Summary and Statistical report of the Population and Housing Census of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia has shown that Awbere is the most populated district in the Somali region of Ethiopia.
The Gadabuursi of Ethiopia have expressed a desire to combine the clan's traditional territories to form a new region-state called Harawo State. "I. M Lewis gives an invaluable reference to an Arabic Manuscript on the history of to the Gadabursi Somal. “This Chronicle opens”, Lewis tells us, ‘with an account of the wars of Imam ‘Ali Si’id, from whom the Gadabursi today trace their descent, and, described as the only Muslim leader fighting on the western flank in the armies of Se’ad ad-Din, ruler of Zeila.’ Se’ad ad-Din was the joint founder of the Kingdom of Adal along with his brother Haqedin II" So not only did the Gadabuursi clan contribute to the Adal Wars, Conquest of Abyssinia, but their predecessors were fighting wars way before the establishment of the Adal Sultanate. The Gadabursi Kingdom was established more than 600 years ago, consisted of a King and many elders. Hundreds of elders used to work in four sections consisting of 25 elders each: Social committee Defense - policing authorities consisting of horsemen, foot soldiers and spear-men, but askaris or soldiers equipped with poison arrows.
Economy and collection of taxes Justice committeeThe chairmen of the four sections were called Afarta Dhadhaar, were selected according to talent and personnel abilities. A constitution, Xeer Gadabursi, had been developed, which divided every case as to whether it was new or had precedents; the Gadabursi King and the elders opposed the arrival of the British at the turn of the twentieth century, but they ended up signing an agreement with them. As a disagreement between the two parties both arose and intensified, the British installed some people against the Ugaas in hopes of overthrowing him; this would bring about the collapse of the kingdom. "When a new Ugaas or Ughaz was appointed amongst the Gadabuursi, a hundred elders, representatives of all the lineages of the clan, assembled to form a parliament to promulgate new heer agreements, to decide what legislation they wished to retain from the reign of the previous Ugaas or King. The compensation rates for delicts committed within the clan were revised if
Hargeisa
Hargeisa is a city situated in the Woqooyi Galbeed region of the self-declared but internationally unrecognised Republic of Somaliland in the Horn of Africa. It is largest city of Somaliland. During the Middle Ages, Hargeisa was part of the domain of the Adal Sultanate; the city succeeded Berbera as the capital of the British Somaliland protectorate in 1941. In 1960, the protectorate gained independence and united as scheduled days with the Trust Territory of Somaliland to form the Somali Republic on July 1. Hargeisa is situated in a valley in the Galgodon highlands, sits at an elevation of 1,334 m. Home to rock art from the Neolithic period, the city is a commercial hub for precious stone-cutting, retail services and trading, among other activities. Little is known about Hargeisa's pre-19th century history. Encyclopaedia Aethiopica suggests that the settlement may have evolved in the latter half of the 1800s as a Qadiriyya settlement established by Shaykh Maddar, near a water-stop used by nomadic stock-herders on the way to the town of Harar.
It thus proposes that the name "Hargeisa" was derived from the sobriquet Harar as-sagir, meaning "Harar the little" or "little Harar'" Numerous cave paintings from the Neolithic period are found in the Laas Geel complex, on the outskirts of Hargeisa. During November and December 2002, an archaeological survey was carried out in the area by a French team of researchers; the expedition's objective was to search for rock shelters and caves containing stratified archaeological infills capable of documenting the period when production economy appeared in this part of Somaliland. During the course of the survey, the French archaeological team discovered the Laas Geel rock art, encompassing an area of ten rock alcoves. In an excellent state of preservation, the paintings show human figures with their hands raised and facing long-horned, humpless cattle; the rock art had been known to the area's inhabitants for centuries before the French discovery. However, the existence of the site had not been broadcast to the international community.
In November 2003, a mission returned to Laas Geel and a team of experts undertook a detailed study of the paintings and their prehistoric context. Somaliland in general is home to numerous such archaeological sites, with similar rock art and/or ancient edifices found at Haylan, Qa’ableh, Qombo'ul and El Ayo. However, many of these old structures have yet to be properly explored, a process which would help shed further light on local history and facilitate their preservation for posterity. In 1888, after signing successive treaties with the ruling Somali Sultans such as Mohamoud Ali Shire of the Warsangali Sultanate, the British established a protectorate in the region referred to as British Somaliland; the British garrisoned the protectorate from Aden in present-day Yemen, administered it from their British India until 1898. British Somaliland was administered by the Foreign Office until 1905 and afterwards by the Colonial Office. Berbera, a major trading harbour on the Red Sea, was the protectorate's first capital due to its strategic importance.
However, the capital was moved from Berbera to Hargeisa, the city was granted capital status in 1941. 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 its independence on 26 June 1960 as the State of Somaliland, before uniting as planned days with the Trust Territory of Somaliland to form the Somali Republic. In the post-independence period, Hargeisa was administered as the capital of the Woqooyi Galbeed province of Somalia. Numerous new development projects were subsequently launched in the city by the Somali government. Among these initiatives was the creation in 1977 of the Hargeisa Provincial Museum, it was the first museum to be established in Somalia since independence in 1960. The Hargeisa International Airport was renovated and modernized, with the ultimate aim of equipping the facility to accommodate larger aircraft and offer more flight destinations. After fallout from the unsuccessful Ogaden campaign of the late 1970s, the ruling socialist government of the Somali Democratic Republic under Major General Mohamed Siad Barre began arresting government and military officials under suspicion of participation in an abortive 1978 coup d'état.
Most of the people who had helped plot the putsch were summarily executed. However, several officials managed to escape abroad and started to form the first of various dissident groups dedicated to ousting Barre's administration by force. Among these rebel outfits was the Somali National Movement, supported by Ethiopia's ruling Derg communist regime. By the late 1980s, the insurgent group had managed to capture Hargeisa, prompting air strikes by government forces; the ensuing bombing raids and crossfire claimed thousands of casualties and destroyed much of the city. After the collapse of the Somali central government and the start of the civil war in 1991, SNM secessionists in the northwestern part of the country unilaterally declared independence. A slow process of infrastructural reconstruction subsequently began in Hargeisa and other towns in the region. Since 1991, Hargeisa has undergone a large-scale facelift; the renovations have been financed by local entrepreneurs, as well as Somali expatriates sending remittance funds to relatives in the region through some of the various Somali-owned money transfer operators.
Most of the destroyed residential and commercial buildings have since been reconstructed, with many newer structures
Sultan
Sultan is a position with several historical meanings. It was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun سلطة sulṭah, meaning "authority" or "power", it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who claimed full sovereignty in practical terms, albeit without claiming the overall caliphate, or to refer to a powerful governor of a province within the caliphate. The adjective form of the word is "sultanic", the dynasty and lands ruled by a sultan are referred to as a sultanate; the term is distinct from king, despite both referring to a sovereign ruler. The use of "sultan" is restricted to Muslim countries, where the title carries religious significance, contrasting the more secular king, used in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. A feminine form of sultan, used by Westerners, is Sultana or Sultanah and this title has been used for some Muslim women monarchs and sultan's mothers and chief consorts; however and Ottoman Turkish uses sultan for imperial lady, as Turkish grammar—which is influenced by Persian grammar—uses the same words for both women and men.
However, this styling misconstrues the roles of wives of sultans. In a similar usage, the wife of a German field marshal might be styled Frau Feldmarschall; the female leaders in Muslim history are known as "sultanas". However, the wife of the sultan in the Sultanate of Sulu is styled as the "panguian" while the sultan's chief wife in many sultanates of Indonesia and Malaysia are known as "permaisuri", "Tunku Ampuan", "Raja Perempuan", or "Tengku Ampuan"; the queen consort in Brunei is known as Raja Isteri with the title of Pengiran Anak suffixed, should the queen consort be a royal princess. In recent years, "sultan" has been replaced by "king" by contemporary hereditary rulers who wish to emphasize their secular authority under the rule of law. A notable example is Morocco, whose monarch changed his title from sultan to king in 1957; these are secondary titles, either lofty'poetry' or with a message, e.g.: Mani Sultan = Manney Sultan - a subsidiary title, part of the full style of the Maharaja of Travancore Sultan of Sultans - the sultanic equivalent of the style King of Kings Certain secondary titles have a devout Islamic connotation.
Sultanic Highness - a rare, hybrid western-Islamic honorific style used by the son, daughter-in-law and daughters of Sultan Hussein Kamel of Egypt, who bore it with their primary titles of Prince or Princess, after 11 October 1917. They enjoyed these titles for life after the Royal Rescript regulating the styles and titles of the Royal House following Egypt's independence in 1922, when the sons and daughters of the newly styled king were granted the title Sahib us-Sumuw al-Malaki, or Royal Highness. Ghaznavid Sultanate. Sultans of Great Seljuk Seljuk Sultanate of Rum Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, the Osmanli Elisu Sultanate and a few others. A Sultan ranked below a Khan. in Syria: Ayyubid Sultans Mamluk Sultans in present-day Yemen, various small sultanates of the former British Aden Protectorate and South Arabia: Audhali, Haushabi, Lahej, Lower Aulaqi, Lower Yafa, Mahra, Qu'aiti, Upper Aulaqi, Upper Yafa and the Wahidi sultanates in present-day Saudi Arabia: Sultans of Nejd Sultans of the Hejaz Oman – Sultan of Oman, on the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula, still an independent sultanate, since 1744 in Algeria: sultanate of Tuggurt in Egypt: Ayyubid Sultans Mamluk Sultans in Morocco, until Mohammed V changed the style to Malik on 14 August 1957, maintaining the subsidiary style Amir al-Mu´minin in Sudan: Darfur Dar al-Masalit Dar Qimr Funj Sultanate of Sinnar Kordofan in Chad: Bagirmi Wada'i, successor state to Birgu Dar Sila Ajuran Sultanate, in southern Somalia and eastern Ethiopia Adal Sultanate, in northwestern Somalia, southern Djibouti, the Somali, Oromia and Afar regions of Ethiopia Majeerteen Sultanate, in northern Somalia Isaaq Sultanate, in northern Somalia Sultanate of the Geledi, in southern Somalia Sultanate of Aussa, in northeastern Ethiopia Sultanate of Harar, in eastern Ethiopia Sultanate of Hobyo, in central Somalia Sultanate of Ifat, in northern Somalia and eastern Ethiopia Sultanate of Mogadishu, in south-central Somalia Sultanate of Showa, in central Ethiopia Warsangali Sultanate, in northern Somalia Bimaal Sultanate, in south eastern Somalia centred in Merka Angoche Sultanate, on the Mozambiquan coast various sultans on the Comoros.
Sultanate of Zanzibar: two incumbents since the de
Somaliland
Somaliland the Republic of Somaliland, is a self-declared state, internationally considered to be an autonomous region of Somalia. The government of the de facto state of Somaliland regards itself as the successor state to the former British Somaliland protectorate, which, in the form of the independent State of Somaliland, united as scheduled on 1 July 1960 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland to form the Somali Republic. Somaliland lies on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden, it is bordered by the remainder of Somalia to the east, Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the south and west. Its claimed territory has an area of 176,120 square kilometres, with 4 million residents; the capital and the largest city is Hargeisa, with the population of around 1,500,000 residents. In 1988, the Siad Barre government began a crackdown against the Hargeisa-based Somali National Movement and other militant groups, which were among the events that led to the Somali Civil War; the conflict left the country's economic and military infrastructure damaged.
Following the collapse of Barre's government in early 1991, local authorities, led by the SNM, unilaterally declared independence from Somalia on 18 May of the same year and reinstated the borders of the former short-lived independent State of Somaliland. Since the territory has been governed by democratically elected governments that seek international recognition as the Government of the Republic of Somaliland; the central government maintains informal ties with some foreign governments, who have sent delegations to Hargeisa. Ethiopia maintains a trade office in the region. However, Somaliland's self-proclaimed independence remains unrecognised by any country or international organisation, it is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, an advocacy group whose members consist of indigenous peoples and unrecognised or occupied territories. Somaliland has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic. During the Stone Age, the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished here.
The oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to the 4th millennium BCE. The stone implements from the Jalelo site in the north were characterized in 1909 as important artefacts demonstrating the archaeological universality during the Paleolithic between the East and the West. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing Neolithic period from the family's proposed urheimat in the Nile Valley, or the Near East; the Laas Geel complex on the outskirts of Hargeisa in northwestern Somalia dates back around 5,000 years, has rock art depicting both wild animals and decorated cows. Other cave paintings are found in the northern Dhambalin region, which feature one of the earliest known depictions of a hunter on horseback; the rock art is in the distinctive Ethiopian-Arabian style, dated to 1,000 to 3,000 BCE. Additionally, between the towns of Las Khorey and El Ayo in northern Somalia lies Karinhegane, the site of numerous cave paintings of real and mythical animals.
Each painting has an inscription below it, which collectively have been estimated to be around 2,500 years old. Ancient pyramidical structures, ruined cities and stone walls, such as the Wargaade Wall, are evidence of an old civilization that once thrived in the Somali peninsula; this civilization enjoyed a trading relationship with ancient Egypt and Mycenaean Greece since the second millennium BCE, supporting the hypothesis that Somalia or adjacent regions were the location of the ancient Land of Punt. The Puntites traded myrrh, gold, short-horned cattle and frankincense with the Egyptians, Babylonians, Indians and Romans through their commercial ports. An Egyptian expedition sent to Punt by the 18th dynasty Queen Hatshepsut is recorded on the temple reliefs at Deir el-Bahari, during the reign of the Puntite King Parahu and Queen Ati. In 2015, isotopic analysis of ancient baboon mummies from Punt, brought to Egypt as gifts indicated that the specimens originated from an area encompassing eastern Somalia and the Eritrea-Ethiopia corridor.
The camel is believed to have been domesticated in the Horn region sometime between the 2nd and 3rd millennium BCE. From there, it spread to the Maghreb. During the classical period, the northern Barbara city-states of Mosylon, Mundus, Malao, Essina and Sarapion developed a lucrative trade network, connecting with merchants from Ptolemaic Egypt, Ancient Greece, Parthian Persia, the Nabataean Kingdom, the Roman Empire, they used the ancient Somali maritime vessel known as the beden to transport their cargo. After the Roman conquest of the Nabataean Empire and the Roman naval presence at Aden to curb piracy and Somali merchants agreed with the Romans to bar Indian ships from trading in the free port cities of the Arabian peninsula to protect the interests of Somali and Arab merchants in the lucrative commerce between the Red and Mediterranean Seas. However, Indian merchants continued to trade in the port cities of the Somali peninsula, free from Roman interference. For centuries, Indian merchants brought large quantities of cinnamon to Somalia and Arabia from Ceylon and the Spice Islands.
The source of the cinnamon and other spices is said
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Somalia (de jure)
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