Somalia

Somalia has been in a state of civil war and armed conflict since 1991, when the collapse of Siad Barre's military dictatorship dissolved the central government. What followed was more than three decades of clan warfare, famine, piracy, international intervention, and an Islamist insurgency by al-Shabaab — an al-Qaeda-affiliated group that at its peak controlled most of south-central Somalia and continues to carry out sophisticated attacks on government targets and civilians throughout the country.

The security situation in 2025–2026 remains grave. Al-Shabaab attempted to assassinate President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in a roadside bombing on 18 March 2025. On 2 August 2024, al-Shabaab killed more than 50 people in an attack on Lido Beach in Mogadishu — a beach popular with ordinary Mogadishans. On 18 May 2025, a suicide bombing killed 20 people at an army recruitment drive outside a military base in Mogadishu. These are not isolated incidents: al-Shabaab carries out attacks continuously across southern and central Somalia, with particular frequency in Mogadishu.

The group controls significant territory in south and central Somalia, running parallel governance structures — courts, taxation, police — in the areas it controls. The Somali government's military offensive against al-Shabaab, launched in 2022, has had some success in pushing the group from specific territories but has not fundamentally changed the security environment. Al-Shabaab retains the ability to conduct complex attacks inside Mogadishu despite being pushed from the city itself.

Beyond al-Shabaab: violent crime is endemic throughout Somalia, including in the capital. Kidnapping for ransom targets both Somali nationals and foreigners. Piracy remains active off the Puntland coast. Illegal armed checkpoints are common outside Mogadishu. The collapse of state infrastructure means emergency services, law enforcement, and healthcare are either absent or unreliable across most of the country. The US government cannot meaningfully help its citizens anywhere in Somalia — the embassy compound is effectively sealed.

This guide covers Somalia because the country exists, has extraordinary history, culture, and people, and because understanding the reality of Somalia is important — including for the significant Somali diaspora that continues to have ties to the country. It does not recommend visiting Somalia proper under current conditions.

Somalia's history long predates the collapsed state that occupies the news. The Somali peninsula has been continuously inhabited for thousands of years, and from antiquity it was one of the most important commercial civilizations in the Indian Ocean world. Ancient Egyptian records from the 18th Dynasty (c. 1500 BCE) describe expeditions to the land of Punt — a mysterious trading partner that supplied Egypt with myrrh, frankincense, ebony, gold, and exotic animals. Many scholars locate Punt in the Horn of Africa, in the territory that is now Somalia and Ethiopia. If this identification is correct, Somali territory was the source of the incense that burned in the temples of the pharaohs and the spices that perfumed the corridors of ancient power.

Through the medieval period, Mogadishu was one of the great ports of the Indian Ocean world. Founded around the 10th century CE by Arab and Persian merchants, it became the center of the Sultanate of Mogadishu and later the Ajuran Sultanate — a powerful state that controlled much of the Somali coast from the 13th to 17th centuries, with a hydraulic engineering system of wells and cisterns that supported agriculture in the Somali interior. The Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta visited Mogadishu in 1331 and described it as one of the finest cities he had seen anywhere in the world: prosperous, well-governed, with beautiful mosques, a sophisticated textile industry, and abundant food. The Chinese admiral Zheng He called at Mogadishu during his Indian Ocean voyages in the early 15th century. At its height, medieval Mogadishu was comparable to any city in Africa or the Middle East.

Colonial division came in the 19th century: Britain established a protectorate over the north (British Somaliland, 1884), Italy claimed the south and east (Italian Somaliland, 1889), and France took Djibouti. The western Somali territories of the Ogaden went to Ethiopia. This partition — cutting the Somali-speaking population across five colonial administrative units — created the political grievance of "Greater Somalia" that would drive conflict for the entire post-independence period.

Somalia became independent on 1 July 1960 through the union of British and Italian Somaliland — one of the few decolonizations that involved the voluntary merger of two separate colonial territories into a single state. The union was popular but structurally difficult: two different legal systems, two different administrative languages (English and Italian), two different currencies, two different bureaucratic traditions. The parliamentary government of the early years gave way in October 1969 to a military coup by General Mohamed Siad Barre, who would govern until 1991 — initially as a Marxist-Leninist aligned with the Soviet Union, then (after losing Soviet support following the Ogaden War with Ethiopia in 1977–78) realigned with the United States. The Ogaden War — in which Somalia invaded the Ogaden region of Ethiopia to unite Somali-speaking peoples — ended in humiliating defeat and triggered the political collapse of Siad Barre's regime, as clan-based opposition movements took advantage of his weakness.

In the north, the Somali National Movement — representing the Isaaq clan of what had been British Somaliland — launched a rebellion in 1988. Siad Barre's response was genocidal: the government bombed Hargeisa (the northern capital), killing an estimated 50,000 people and destroying approximately 90% of the city. Half a million people fled to Ethiopia and Djibouti. This massacre is why Somaliland declared independence in 1991 and has refused to rejoin Somalia since.

Siad Barre fell in January 1991. What followed was the collapse of the Somali state — the most complete state failure of the post-Cold War era. Clan-based warlords divided the country and fought each other. A catastrophic famine in 1991–1992 killed somewhere between 240,000 and 500,000 people, driving the US-led UNOSOM humanitarian intervention and then the "Black Hawk Down" disaster of October 1993, when Somali militia shot down two US Black Hawk helicopters in Mogadishu, killing 18 American soldiers and dragging their bodies through the streets — an event that traumatized US foreign policy toward Africa for a generation. The US withdrew. The UN withdrew. The famine was addressed but the political situation was not.

The Islamic Courts Union took control of Mogadishu briefly in 2006, providing a period of relative order and security — Lido Beach opened to the public; cinema screened films again; people walked the streets at night. Ethiopia invaded in December 2006 to dislodge the ICU at US urging, concerned about al-Qaeda links. The invasion destroyed the ICU but created al-Shabaab, which formed from the ICU's militant youth wing and has been conducting an insurgency against the Somali government ever since. Al-Shabaab's brutality — banning music, amputating limbs for theft, executing those accused of spying — eventually lost it the popular support it had briefly held, but it remains the most formidable armed group in East Africa, with 12,000–18,000 fighters and the capacity to carry out complex attacks anywhere in Somalia.

The Federal Government of Somalia was established in 2012 and has maintained international recognition, though its actual authority is contested across much of the country. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud — re-elected in 2022 — launched a "total war" against al-Shabaab in August 2022 and made significant territorial gains in 2023, but the group remains operational. The country's institutional structure — which distributes power among the federal government and several autonomous regional states — is itself a site of ongoing political conflict, with Puntland declaring withdrawal from the federation in 2024 and Jubbaland doing the same in December 2025.

Somaliland is not Somalia. This is the essential thing to understand before anything else. On 18 May 1991, the Somali National Movement — which had fought against Siad Barre's regime throughout the 1980s and suffered a government bombing campaign that killed 50,000 of its people — declared independence for the former British Somaliland protectorate. In the 35 years since, Somaliland has built a functioning government, held democratic elections (including peaceful transfers of power), established its own currency (the Somaliland shilling), trained its own security forces, and maintained a level of stability that is extraordinary by the standards of the region.

No UN member state recognizes Somaliland's independence. This creates an extraordinary paradox: a country with more democratic credentials than most of its recognized neighbors, more effective security than the state it supposedly belongs to, and its own functioning institutions — but no embassy, no international phone code, no representation in international organizations. Somaliland must negotiate its own air agreements, its own trade relationships, its own investment deals, without the infrastructure that recognition would provide.

For travelers, Somaliland offers something genuinely rare: a place that is simultaneously unfamiliar and navigable, where the warmth of the people is genuine (they are astonished and delighted that you came), and where the specific experiences available — Laas Geel, Hargeisa, Berbera, the camel markets — are unlike anything else on the continent. It is not without risks; the armed escort requirement outside Hargeisa is real, and the border situation with Puntland makes eastern Somaliland dangerous. But the western corridor from Hargeisa to Berbera is genuinely accessible to determined and prepared visitors.

Visiting Somaliland: Practical Essentials

Visa: Visa on arrival available at Hargeisa Egal International Airport for EU, UK, US, Canadian, Chinese citizens and others — approximately $60 USD. Apply through Somaliland representative offices in London, Washington, or other cities if you prefer to arrange in advance (the London mission is the most reliable for European visitors, ~£30). Note: the Somali central government's eVisa is not recognized in Somaliland.

Armed escorts (SPU): The Somaliland government requires all foreigners to hire a Special Protection Unit guard when traveling outside Hargeisa. Arrange through the Hargeisa tourism office or through your hotel. The going rate is approximately $15–30/day. You cannot waive this requirement without a police commander's letter, which is practically difficult to obtain.

Flights: Ethiopian Airlines from Addis Ababa. Jubba Airways, African Express, and Daallo Airlines from Dubai, Djibouti, Nairobi. No budget airlines. All flights are expensive — budget $150–300+ one-way. Book well ahead and confirm: airlines in this region routinely oversell seats and give them away if you don't confirm close to departure.

Accommodation: Hargeisa has several hotels with reliable (if basic) facilities — the Ambassador Hotel and Maansoor Hotel are the most used by Western visitors. Berbera has a few guesthouses. Outside these two cities, accommodation is very basic to nonexistent.

What not to do: Do not attempt to travel to the Sanaag or Sool regions (active armed conflict). Do not try to cross into Somalia from Somaliland — the border is dangerous in both directions and Somaliland does not recognize the passage as a legitimate crossing. Do not travel at night outside Hargeisa under any circumstances.

Mogadishu occupies one of the most beautiful natural settings of any city in Africa: a natural harbor on the Indian Ocean coast, backed by the city's white coral-stone architecture, with clean beaches extending north and south. It was one of the great ports of the medieval world. Ibn Battuta called it one of the finest cities he had ever seen. The Somali poet and journalist Warsan Shire, who grew up partially in Mogadishu, writes about it with the specific grief of someone who loved something that was taken apart.

Today's Mogadishu is simultaneously recovering and actively dangerous. The Hamarweyne and Shangani districts contain extraordinary medieval architecture — old mosques, coral-stone merchant houses, the ruins of a city that was cosmopolitan and prosperous for seven centuries. The Lido Beach area has reopened and functions as a social gathering space for ordinary Mogadishans on weekends. There are restaurants, hotels, a growing private sector, and a genuine energy of rebuilding. Somalia's government reported a 50% increase in tourists between 2023 and 2024, and launched an eVisa system in September 2025 to simplify entry.

But on 2 August 2024, al-Shabaab attacked Lido Beach specifically — the place where Mogadishans go to breathe — and killed more than 50 people. On 18 March 2025, they tried to kill the president on a Mogadishu road. The US Embassy is located at the airport compound and its staff cannot leave it. The small number of Western journalists, NGO workers, and extreme tourists who visit Mogadishu do so with armed security teams, carefully planned movements, and the explicit understanding that a complex attack could happen at any point without warning.

A handful of specialist tour operators — Young Pioneer Tours, Untamed Borders, Lupine Travel — organize small group tours to Mogadishu, typically capped at 10 people, with vetted armed security teams. These operators have run multiple tours without incident. That track record is real. So is the risk. The operators themselves describe Mogadishu as their highest-risk destination. The people who take these tours are typically country-counters, extreme travelers, journalists, or people with personal connections to Somalia. If you are considering visiting, use one of these specialist operators — independent travel to Mogadishu is not viable and is not recommended by anyone with operational knowledge of the situation.

The Somali people are one of the most culturally cohesive ethnic groups in Africa — sharing a common language (Somali, with several dialects), a common religion (Islam, practiced since approximately the 10th century CE), and a common pastoral-nomadic tradition that has shaped Somali social structures, oral literature, and values across the entire Horn of Africa and into the diaspora. Ethnic Somalis live not only in Somalia and Somaliland but also in Ethiopia (Somali Region/Ogaden), Kenya (North Eastern Province), and Djibouti, and the diaspora is spread across Europe, North America, and the Gulf.

This section is for people with non-negotiable reasons to visit Somalia — diaspora members visiting family, journalists, aid workers, NGO staff, or the very small number of extreme travelers who have made an informed decision to visit Mogadishu through a specialist operator. It is not a recommendation to visit. It is practical information for those who have already decided.

Emergency services in Somalia are effectively nonexistent in most of the country. In Mogadishu, some services exist but are unreliable. There is no national emergency number. In Somaliland, dial 999 for police. In any emergency in Somalia, your first call should be to your pre-arranged security team, then to your organization, then to the nearest functioning embassy — which for most Western nationals is in Nairobi, Kenya, not in Mogadishu or Hargeisa.