Somalia creates new state
Somali politicians have announced the creation of a new administrative region - Azania - in the battle-scarred country. The creation of Azania was celebrated on Sunday in a colourful ceremony in Kenya's capital Nairobi.
Kenya supports the new administration as it creates a buffer zone near its border with Somalia. Azania is supposed to cover the southern part of Somalia.
Mohamed Abdi Gandhi, Somalia's former Defense Minister, was appointed President of the new state.
Mohamed Abdi Gandhi said on Sunday that his first duty is to retake his territory from al-Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabab.
Somalia has been mired in chaos since the fall of the government in 1991. The country has been divided into several parts ever since. In 1991, inhabitants of northern Somalia formed their own administration called Somaliland. The region is independent from Mogadishu but does not have international recognition.
In 1998, residents of the northeast followed suit by creating the semiautonomous region of Puntland.
Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory. The internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government controls only a small part of the country. Somalia has been characterized as a failed state and is one of the poorest and most violent states in the world.
