Somalia

The struggle

Somali territory was divided five ways between Britain, Italy, France and Ethiopia. Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan fought British and Italian forces for two decades from 1899. British Somaliland became independent on 26 June 1960 and united five days later with Italian-administered Somalia to form the Somali Republic on 1 July.

Key people

• Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan

  1856–1920

  Led the twenty-year Dervish resistance

• Aden Abdullah Osman Daar

  1908–2007

  First president of the Somali Republic

• Hawo Tako

  1920–1948

  Nationalist killed in 1948; symbol of the movement