The north-eastern cost country of Somalia has a population of 15 million, with four main languages spoken throughout the nation, Somali, Arabic, Italian, English, and Islam as its major religion.
Somalia gained independence from Italian colonisation and a British protectorate in 1960 and fell into anarchy following the overthrow of the military regime of President Siad Barre in 1991. Since then Somalia has been through tumultuous civil unrest, with rivalling warlords breaking the country apart. According to the BBC, "Since 2012, when a new internationally-backed government was installed, Somalia has been inching towards stability, but the new authorities still face a challenge from Al-Qaeda-aligned Al-Shabab insurgents."
