Somalia

Somalia is located on the Horn of Africa, with a coastline along the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean on the continent's eastern edge. Its neighbors are Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Kenya. The territory was granted independence by Italy and the Britain in 1960.

The national government collapsed in 1991, leaving warring factions control different regions. Low-inten-sity civil war has been a constant factor in Somali life, destroying the country's already fragile economy and public infrastructure and bring much hardship to the population.

Population estimates are hard to come by, as the most complete census was taken in 1975 and many Somalis are nomads and thus difficult to count. Extrapolating from the 1975 data, demographers put the current population at around 9 million, with an estimated 2.83 percent annual growth rate. The birth rate is 44.6 per 1,000 and the death rate is 16.28 per 1,000. Median age is 17.6 years. Life expectancy is 47.56 years for males and 50.69 years for females. Gross national income is $130 per capita, with more than 71 percent of the people relying on subsistence agriculture.

Food security has diminished in Somalia in recent years. By the end of 2005, almost a million Somalis required food assistance from aid organizations, and almost 200,000 were considered critically malnourished.

Morbidity and mortality are driven by communicable disease. Diarrhea, including cholera, is the leading cause of hospital admissions and deaths. Only 29 percent have safe drinking water. Sanitation ranges from 48 percent in the urban areas to 14 percent or less in rural areas. Typhoid, dengue fever, schistosomiasis, hepatitis A and hepatitis E are prevalent.

As in many majority-Muslim nations, Somalia has a low adult prevalence rate for HIV/AIDS, at just 0.9 percent. Tuberculosis rates are high for the region, with 673 cases per 100,000 and 117 deaths per 100,000. The spread of TB relates primarily to the crowded conditions in which many Somalis live.

Child mortality rates are high. In infants younger than one, there are 133 deaths per 1,000. For those between the ages of one and five, the rate is almost double, at 225 deaths per 1,000. As with adults, diarrhea is a major contributing factor in mortality. In a 2000 survey by UNICEF, 25 percent of children under five were found to have suffered from diarrhea within two weeks of the survey period.

Female genital mutilation is universal among Somali women. Education is not encouraged, and only 25 percent of women are literate. Girls are often married as young as 14 or 15 years of age. The total fertility rate is one of the world's highest, at 6.68 children per women. Thirty-two percent receive prenatal care, and 25 percent have a trained attendant during childbirth. This contributes to a maternal mortality rate of 1,100 deaths per 100,000, or a one in 10 lifetime risk of dying in childbirth.

Hospitals, where they exist, are understaffed. The World Health Organization states the Somalia has lost an entire generation of medical professional due to war and poverty. There are 84 hospitals, 199 mother/child wellness clinics, 525 heath posts, 91 private clinics and 51 school clinics within Somalia, but many of these facilities have been decimated by fighting or neglect, and most Somalis lack the funds to pay for treatment. The [Page 1583]World Health Organization and other non-governmen-tal groups have had to take over some of the functions of the Ministry of Health due to political disarray.

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