te logging and plantation roads of varied
construction

Ports: Honiara, Ringi Cove

Civil air: no major transport aircraft

Airports: 29 total, 27 usable; 2 with permanent-surface runways;
none with runways over 2,439 m; 5 with runways 1,220-2,439 m

Telecommunications: 3,000 telephones; stations--4 AM, no FM, no TV;
1 Pacific Ocean INTELSAT earth station

- Defense Forces
Branches: NA

Military manpower: NA

Defense expenditures: NA
----------------------------------------------------
Country: Somalia
- Geography
Total area: 637,660 km2; land area: 627,340 km2

Comparative area: slightly smaller than Texas

Land boundaries: 2,340 km total; Djibouti 58 km, Ethiopia 1,600 km,
Kenya 682 km

Coastline: 3,025 km

Maritime claims:

Territorial sea: 200 nm

Disputes: southern half of boundary with Ethiopia is a Provisional
Administrative Line; territorial dispute with Ethiopia over the Ogaden;
possible claims to Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya based on unification of
ethnic Somalis

Climate: desert; northeast monsoon (December to February),
cooler southwest monsoon (May to October); irregular rainfall; hot, humid
periods (tangambili) between monsoons

Terrain: mostly flat to undulating plateau rising to hills in north

Natural resources: uranium, and largely unexploited reserves
of iron ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt

Land use: 2% arable land; NEGL% permanent crops; 46% meadows and pastures;
14% forest and woodland; 38% other; includes 3% irrigated

Environment: recurring droughts; frequent dust storms over eastern
plains in summer; deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification

Note: strategic location on Horn of Africa along southern
approaches to Bab el Mandeb and route through Red Sea and Suez Canal

- People
Population: 8,424,269 (July 1990), growth rate 0.8% (1990)

Birth rate: 47 births/1,000 population (1990)

Death rate: 15 deaths/1,000 population (1990)

Net migration rate: - 24 migrants/1,000 population (1990)

Infant mortality rate: 125 deaths/1,000 live births (1990)

Life expectancy at birth: 53 years male, 54 years female (1990)

Total fertility rate: 7.3 children born/woman (1990)

Nationality: noun--Somali(s); adjective--Somali

Ethnic divisions: 85% Somali, rest mainly Bantu; 30,000 Arabs, 3,000
Europeans, 800 Asians

Religion: almost entirely Sunni Muslim

Language: Somali (official); Arabic, Italian, English

Literacy: 11.6% (government est.)