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Somalia in turmoil

Updated: Tue, 19 May 2015

Introduction

More than two decades of war and years of drought have displaced huge numbers of people in Somalia. Security has improved, but the country remains the scene of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

African peacekeeping troops have driven back the hardline Islamist group al Shabaab who in 2011 controlled much of central and southern Somalia.

Somalia's first formal parliament in more than 20 years was sworn in August 2012, a year after the militants were forced out of the capital Mogadishu.

More territory is now under the control of the central government than at any time since the early 1990s. Experts say the gains are fragile and parts of the countryside remain under the militants' control and they still carry out regular attacks on the capital.

An estimated 3 million people – out of a total population of 7.5 million – need aid to keep them from starvation and rebuild their livelihoods.

Read the full Somalia briefing.

More than two decades of war and years of drought have displaced huge numbers of people in Somalia. Security has improved, but the country remains the scene of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

African peacekeeping troops have driven back the hardline Islamist group al Shabaab who in 2011 controlled much of central and southern Somalia.

Somalia's first formal parliament in more than 20 years was sworn in August 2012, a year after the militants were forced out of the capital Mogadishu.

More territory is now under the control of the central government than at any time since the early 1990s. Experts say the gains are fragile and parts of the countryside remain under the militants' control and they still carry out regular attacks on the capital.

An estimated 3 million people – out of a total population of 7.5 million – need aid to keep them from starvation and rebuild their livelihoods.

Read the full Somalia briefing.