Brief History about Somalia:

 Somalia, situated in the Horn of Africa, lies along the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. It is bounded by Djibouti in the northwest, Ethiopia in the west, and Kenya in the southwest. In area it is slightly smaller than Texas. Generally arid and barren, Somalia has two chief rivers, the Shebelle and the Juba. Somalia has a population of 8.8 million. Approximately a million people have been injured, displaced or killed during the past 16 years

 Somalia has been in state of turmoil since a civil war erupted in 1991. Between Jan. 1991 and Aug. 2000, Somalia had no working government. A fragile parliamentary government was formed in 2000, but it expired in 2003 without establishing control of the country. In 2004, a new transitional parliament was instituted and elected a president.

  Since the collapse of the Somali Government and the start of the civil war in the early 90s, records indicate that over 150,000 documented and many undocumented Somalis have immigrated to the U.S. Specifically in the last six years, the population of the Somali community in Portland has been rapidly increasing.