History of Somalia

Additionally, the port towns of Barawe and Merca played significant roles in this commercial network which were part of the Azania city states during classic era[citation needed].

[9] The administration lasted until 1969, when the Supreme Revolutionary Council led by Mohamed Siad Barre, seized power in a bloodless coup and renamed the country the Somali Democratic Republic.

[16][17] The Laas Geel cave complex on the outskirts of Hargeisa in northwestern Somalia has rock art which dates back around 5,000 years and has depicting both wild animals and decorated cows.

[19][20] 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.

[24][26] The Puntites traded myrrh, spices, gold, ebony, short-horned cattle, ivory and frankincense with the Ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Babylonians, Indians, Chinese and Romans through their commercial ports.

[27] In the classical period, the Somali city-states of Mosylon, Opone, Malao, Sarapion, Mundus, Essina and Tabae in Somalia developed a lucrative trade network connecting with merchants from Phoenicia, Ptolemic Egypt, Greece, Parthian Persia, Sheba, Nabataea and the Roman Empire.

[42][43][44] The conquest of Shoa ignited a rivalry for supremacy between the Christian Solomonids and the Muslim Ifatites, which resulted in several devastating wars and ultimately ended in a Solomonic victory over the Sultanate of Ifat.

Many similar battles were fought between the Adalites and the Solomonids with both sides achieving victory and suffering defeat but ultimately Sultan Sabr ad-Din II successfully managed to drive the Solomonic army out of Adal territory.

At the turn of the 16th century, Adal regrouped and, around 1527, under the charismatic leadership of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Gurey in Somali meaning "left-handed"), invaded Abyssinia.

[48] The Portuguese had been in the area earlier – in the early 16th century, in search of the legendary priest-king Prester John – and, although a diplomatic mission from Portugal, led by Rodrigo de Lima, had failed to improve relations between the countries, they responded to the Ethiopian pleas for help and sent a military expedition to their fellow Christians.

[49][50] During the age of the Ajurans, the sultanates and republics of Merca, Mogadishu, Barawa, Hobyo and their respective ports flourished and had a lucrative foreign commerce with ships sailing to and coming from Arabia, India, Venetia,[51] Persia, Egypt, Portugal and as far away as China.

Vasco da Gama, who passed by Mogadishu in the 15th century, noted that it was a large city with houses of four or five storeys and big palaces in its centre and many mosques with cylindrical minarets.

[53] Mogadishu, the center of a thriving weaving industry known as toob benadir (specialized for the markets in Egypt and Syria),[54] together with Merca and Barawa also served as transit stops for Swahili merchants from Mombasa and Malindi and for the gold trade from Kilwa.

Berbera was the main marketplace in the entire Somali seaboard for various goods procured from the interior, such as livestock, coffee, frankincense, myrrh, acacia gum, saffron, feathers, ghee, hide (skin), gold and ivory.

Hassan threatened to drive the Christians into the sea; he committed the first attack by launching his first major military offensive with his 1,500 Dervish equipped with 20 modern rifles on the British soldiers stationed in the region.

The Fascist government had direct rule only over the Benadir territory Given the defeat of the Dervish movement in the early 1920s and the rise of fascism in Europe, on 10 July 1925, Mussolini gave the green light to De Vecchi to start the takeover of the north-eastern sultanates.

[93] By 1940, the Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi (now Jowhar) had a population of 12,000 people, of whom nearly 3,000 were Italian Somalis, and enjoyed a notable level of development with a small manufacturing area with agricultural industries (sugar mills, etc.).

[98] Britain also granted administration of the almost exclusively Somali-inhabited[102] Northern Frontier District (NFD) to Kenyan nationalists despite an informal plebiscite demonstrating the overwhelming desire of the region's population to join the newly formed Somali Republic.

His assassination was quickly followed by a military coup d'état on 21 October 1969 (the day after his funeral), in which the Somali Army seized power without encountering armed opposition – essentially a bloodless takeover.

[109] Alongside Barre, the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC) that assumed power after President Sharmarke's assassination was led by Lieutenant Colonel Salaad Gabeyre Kediye and Chief of Police Jama Korshel.

[115] In July 1976, Barre's SRC disbanded itself and established in its place the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP), a one-party government based on scientific socialism and Islamic tenets.

Although Barre managed to recover enough to present himself as the sole presidential candidate for re-election over a term of seven years on 23 December 1986, his poor health and advanced age led to speculation about who would succeed him in power.

Following the outbreak of the civil war and the ensuing collapse of the central government, Somalia's residents reverted to local forms of conflict resolution, either secular, traditional or Islamic law, with a provision for appeal of all sentences.

[138] While Somalia's formal judicial system was largely destroyed after the fall of the Siad Barre regime, it was later gradually rebuilt and administered under different regional governments, such as the autonomous Puntland and Somaliland macro-regions.

[141] Xeer is defined by a few fundamental tenets that are immutable and which closely approximate the principle of jus cogens in international law: These precepts include: a) payment of blood money (locally referred to as diya) for libel, theft, physical harm, rape and death, as well as supplying assistance to relatives; b) assuring good inter-clan relations by treating women justly, negotiating with "peace emissaries" in good faith, and sparing the lives of socially protected groups "Birr Magaydo," (e.g. children, women, the pious, poets, messengers, sheikhs, and guests); c) family obligations such as the payment of dowry, and sanctions for eloping; d) rules pertaining to the management of resources such as the use of pasture land, water, and other natural resources; e) providing financial support to married female relatives and newlyweds; f) donating livestock and other assets to the poor.

The Transitional Federal Government sought to reestablish its authority, and, with the assistance of Ethiopian troops, African Union peacekeepers and air support by the United States, managed to drive out the rival ICU and solidify its rule.

[146] On 8 January 2007, as the Battle of Ras Kamboni raged, TFG President and founder Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, a former colonel in the Somali Army and decorated war hero, entered Mogadishu for the first time since being elected to office.

Endorsed by the federal State Minister for the Presidency Farah Abdulkadir on behalf of Hassan, the pact was brokered by the Foreign Ministry of Ethiopia and came after protracted bilateral talks.

Under the terms of the agreement, Jubaland will be administered for a two-year period by a Juba Interim Administration and led by the region's incumbent president, Ahmed Mohamed Islam (Madobe).

Management of Kismayo's seaport and airport will also be transferred to the Federal Government after a period of six months, and revenues and resources generated from these infrastructures will be earmarked for Jubaland's service delivery and security sectors as well as local institutional development.