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Space Shuttle , in May of 1993. The orange and tan colors in this image indicate a largely arid to semiarid climate.]] The Horn of Africa or '''Somali Peninsula''' is a Peninsula of East Africa that juts for hundreds of kilometers (or miles) into the Arabian Sea , and lies along the southern side of the Gulf Of Aden . It is the easternmost projection of the African Continent . It indeed resembles in outline the Horn Of An Animal — perhaps especially, the horns of the Black Rhinoceros , whose historic range includes parts of neighboring Ethiopia :
The term also refers to the greater region containing the countries of Djibouti , Ethiopia , Eritrea and Somalia . As such, it covers approximately 2,000,000 km&2 and is inhabited by about 86.5 million people. Sudan and Kenya are sometimes included as well. in Ethiopia, and the North Eastern province in Kenya. GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE The Horn of Africa, almost equidistant from the Equator and the Tropic Of Cancer , is an arid region. Socotra is a small island off the coast of Somalia, in the Indian Ocean, that is considered to be part of Africa. Its size is 3,600 square km. It is a territory of Yemen , the southernmost country on the Arabian Peninsula . HISTORY Ancient history The Kingdom Of Aksum (also known as "Axum") was an African state located in Ethiopia, Eritrea, northern Somalia and Yemen that thrived between the 3rd and 11th centuries. Due to the Horn's strategic location, it has been used to restrict access to the Red Sea in the past. The region was also a source of biological resources during the , Greeks and Roman s sent expeditions to the region for Frankincense , Myrrh , Dragon's Blood or Cinnabar and took these commodities back along the Incense Route . Therefore the Romans called this region Regio Aromatica. Modern history The Horn of Africa is a region continuously in crisis. Ethiopia occupies a predominant position in the Horn because of its erupted in Somalia in 1977 , resulting in the country having had no functioning national government since 1991 . Sudan , with the Sudanese Civil War , represents another important source of instability for the whole region. Conflicts have also occurred in Djibouti and Eritrea. Moreover, the region is regularly stricken by Natural Catastrophe s, such as Drought s (in Ethiopia) or Flood (Somalia) that hit Rural areas particularly hard. As a result, the region has some of the world's highest levels of Malnutrition and is continuously loomed by a major Humanitarian Crisis . Between 1982 and 1992 , about two million people died in the Horn of Africa due to this combination of war and Famine . The Horn of Africa, since 2002, has been a major focus of attention by the United States , France , Germany , and eleven African nations regarding the War On Terrorism . CULTURE AND ETHNICITY The countries of the Horn of Africa are culturally linked together and they are closer to Arabia than to the rest of Africa. Local people have been using the Plow for cultivation and kept the Arabian Dromedary as domestic animals for a long time. Some important ethno-linguistic groups in the Horn of Africa are:
ECONOMY States of the region depend largely on a few key Export s:
ECOLOGY (''Equus grevyi'')]] The Horn of Africa is a UNESCO 's Biodiversity Hotspot and one of the two entirely arid ones. However the Horn of Africa suffers largely from Overgrazing and only 5% of its original Habitat still remains. On Socotra, another great threat is the development of Infrastructure . Fauna About 220 Mammal s are found in the Horn of Africa. Among threatened species of the region, we find several Antelope s such as the Beira , the Dibatag , the Silver Dikdik and the Speke’s Gazelle . Other remarkable species include the Somali Wild Ass , the Desert Warthog , the Hamadryas , the Somali Pygmy Gerbil , the Ammodile and the Speke’s Pectinator . The Grevy's Zebra is the unique wild Equid of the region. Some important Bird species of the Horn are the Bulo Burti Boubou , the Golden-winged Grosbeak , the Warsangli Linnet or the Djibouti Francolin . The Horn of Africa holds more Endemic Reptile s than anywhere else in Africa, with about 90 species over about 285 found exclusively here. Among endemic reptile genera, there are '' Haackgreerius '', '' Haemodracon '', '' Ditypophis '', '' Pachycalamus '' or '' Aeluroglena ''. Half of these genera are uniquely found on Socotra. Unlike reptiles, Amphibian s are poorly represented in the region. There are about 100 species of Freshwater Fish in the Horn of Africa, about 10 of which are endemic. Among the endemic, we find the cave-dwelling Somali Blind Barb and the Somali Cavefish . Flora It is estimated that about 5,000 species of and the Dirachmaceae . Among the other remarkable species, there are the Cucumber Tree found only on Socotra, the Bankoualé Palm , the Yeheb Nut or the Somali Cyclamen . SEE ALSO
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