Somalia

While never officially colonized, Somalia was under British control as a protectorate until 1960 when they finally withdrew and allowed British Somaliland to join with Italian Somaliland and form the new nation of Somalia.  Several decades of stability followed with the Mohamed Siad Barre socialist regime, but after its collapse, Somalia fell into turmoil and anarchy. Northern clans declared their independence, and several remain autonomous states even today. After years of famines and country-wide insecurity, the Government of Kenya facilitated a two-year country-wide peace process, which ended in 2004 with the election of Abdullahi YUSUF Ahmed as President of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG) and the formation of an interim government, known as the Somalia Transitional Federal Institutions. Sheikh SHARIF Sheikh Ahmed was elected president on January 31, 2009. The TFG continues to reach out to Somali stakeholders and work with international donors to help build the governance capacity and work toward national elections in 2011. Counterpart International (Counterpart) provides medical supplies and equipment like wheelchairs, surgical tools and hospital beds. Counterpart has also been able to ship valuable commodities to Somalia after several natural disasters.