States and regions of Somalia


is a federal republic consisting of five federal states as well as the claimed region of Somaliland. Somalia is further subdivided into eighteen administrative regions, which are in turn subdivided into districts.

History

is an autonomous unionist state in the northeast of Somalia that was formed in 1998. Galmudug is a federal state in central Somalia. Jubaland in a federal state in the south of Somalia. In November 2014, the South West State of Somalia was established as a Somali federal state. In October 2016, a formation conference was launched in order to form the Hirshabelle State as a Somali federal state.
The Federal Parliament is tasked with selecting the ultimate number and boundaries of the autonomous regional states within the Federal Republic of Somalia. To this end, the legislature in December 2014 passed a law establishing the Boundary and Federalization Commission. The body is mandated with determining the boundaries of the country's constituent Federal Member States, as well as arbitrating between these regional states on their respective jurisdiction.

Somaliland

The Republic of Somaliland is a de facto independent country with limited recognition that is located in the north of the Horn of Africa, adjacent to the Federal Republic of Somalia, a member state of the United Nations which claims Somaliland as its territory. Somaliland does not have full diplomatic relations with any other country. According to Somalia, Somaliland comprises the northwestern portion of its territory and around 27.6% of its total claimed territory. Most countries worldwide recognise Somaliland as a breakaway or autonomous region of Somalia. In reality, Somalia has no effective sovereignty over most of Somaliland.

Federal member states

As of 2016, Somalia is officially divided into 5 federal member states:
Below are the regions of Somalia, along with their capitals shown in brackets:
President of Somalia Mohamed Siad Barre established five of the these gobol in 1974-75 for political reasons: Middle Juba, Lower Juba, Gedo, Bay and Bakool; Banaadir shrank to Mogadishu city only at the same time.