Country
A federal republic on the Horn's eastern seaboard with the longest coastline in mainland Africa. Somalia's federal member states share power with a central government in Mogadishu, and its economy runs heavily on livestock export, remittances and the ports of Mogadishu, Bosaso, Kismayo and Berbera.
Regions of Somalia
Federal and state forces are expanding operations across central Somalia, where the boundary between administrations has long been harder to police than the international border.
Turkey has become one of Somalia's most consequential external partners, with interests spanning port management, military training and reconstruction.
The Shabelle valley has been contested for years. Reporting from it requires unusual caution.
The capital's port handles the largest share of Somali imports, and its performance sets the price of goods across the south.
Corridor projects across the Horn aim to cut the cost of moving goods between the highlands and the coast, where transport costs remain the largest single component of landed price.
A narrow strait at the bottom of the Red Sea shapes the economics and the security policy of all four countries in the Horn. Here is how.
A mobile money system with unusually deep penetration has given Somali founders an infrastructure layer that many larger African markets lack.
The central state sets out priorities across water, roads, health and education, in a region where the administration is younger than most of its problems.
Every serious question in Horn diplomacy now runs through one problem: how a country of more than a hundred and twenty million reaches the sea.
A generation trained abroad is returning to build the systems the region runs on.
Stadiums that stood empty for two decades are hosting competitive football again.