Opinion Articles
African Union troops are having their "worst year" in Somalia since 2011. Can they still mount a final offensive against the al Qaeda-linked group?
The Somali Republic was the official name of Somalia after independence on July 1, 1960, following the union of the Trust Territory of Somalia (the former Italian Somaliland) and the State of Somaliland (the former British Somaliland). A government was formed by Abdullahi Issa and other members of the trusteeship and protectorate governments, with Haji Bashir Ismail Yusuf as President of the Somali National Assembly, Aden Abdullah Osman Daar as President of the Somali Republic, and Abdirashid Ali Shermarke as Prime Minister. On 20 July 1961 and through a popular referendum, the people of Somalia ratified a new constitution, which was first drafted in 1960. The administration lasted until 1969, when the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC) seized power in a bloodless putsch and renamed the country the Somali Democratic Republic.
