Somalia (Somali: Soomaaliya; Arabic: الصومال transliteration: aṣ-Ṣūmāl), officially the Somali Republic (Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, Arabic: جمهورية الصومال transliteration: Jumhūriyyat aṣ-Ṣūmāl) and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is located on the Horn of Africa in East Africa. It is bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya on its southwest, the Gulf of Aden with Yemen on its north, the Indian Ocean at its east and Ethiopia to the west.
The Somali state currently exists solely in a de jure capacity; Somalia has no recognised central government authority nor any other feature associated with an established independent state. De facto authority resides in the hands of the governments for the unrecognised entities of Somaliland and Puntland and the United Nations-recognised, interim Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which until recently controlled only Baidoa. Violence has plagued Mogadishu, the capital, since warlords ousted former President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.