Somalia, officially the Republic of Somalia, is Africa’s easternmost country. It is bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, the Gulf of Aden with Yemen to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Ethiopia to the west. Strategically located at the mouth of the Bab el Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, the country occupies the tip of a region that, due to its resemblance on the map to a rhinoceros’ horn, is commonly referred to as the Horn of Africa.
With the longest coastline on the continent, its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands.
Somalia has only two permanent rivers, the Jubba and the Shabele, both of which begin in the Ethiopian highlands. These rivers mainly flow southwards, with the Jubba River entering the Indian Ocean at Kismayo. The Shabele River at one time apparently used to enter the sea near Merca, but now reaches a point just southwest of Mogadishu. After that, it consists of swamps and dry reaches before finally disappearing in the desert terrain east of Jilib, near the Jubba River.