Horn of Africa

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Horn of Africa

The Horn of Africa ( ) (alternatively Northeast Africa, and sometimes Somali Peninsula; shortened to HOA) is a peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of Landform that is nearly surrounded by water but connected to mainland via an isthmus. Word origin: Latin paeninsula : paene, almost + insula, island....
in East Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN subregion, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
that juts for hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea

Arabian Sea

The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui, the north-east point of Somalia, Socotra, Kanyakumari in India, and the western coast of Sri Lanka....
, and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden

Gulf of Aden

The Gulf of Aden is located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. In the northwest, it connects with the Red Sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait....
.

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Geography and climate

The Horn of Africa is almost equidistant from the equator

Equator

The equator is the intersection of the Earth's surface with the Plane perpendicular to the Earth's rotation and containing the Earth's center of mass....
and the Tropic of Cancer

Tropic of Cancer

The Tropic of Cancer, or Northern tropic, is one of five major degree measures or major circle of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. It is the northernmost latitude at which the Sun can appear directly overhead at noon....
. It consists chiefly of mountains uplifted through the formation of the Great Rift Valley

Great Rift Valley

The Great Rift Valley is a name given in the late 19th century by British explorer John Walter Gregory to the continuous geographic trough, approximately in length, that runs from northern Syria in Southwest Asia to central Mozambique in East Africa....
, a fissure in the Earth's crust

Crust (geology)

In geology, a crust is the outermost solid shell of a planet or moon, which is chemically distinct from the underlying mantle . Crusts of Earth , our Moon, Mercury , Venus, and Mars have been generated largely by igneous processes, and these crusts are richer in incompatible elements than their respective mantle s....
extending from Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
to Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest....
and marking the separation of the African and Arabian tectonic plate

Plate tectonics

Plate tectonics describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere. The theory encompasses the older concepts of continental drift, developed during the first decades of the 20th century by Alfred Wegener, and seafloor spreading, understood during the 1960s....
s. Most of the region is mountainous due to faults resulting from the Rift Valley, with the highest peaks in the Simien Mountains of northwestern Ethiopia. Extensive glacier

Glacier

A glacier is a large, slow-moving mass of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow, that slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity and high pressure....
s once covered the Simien and Bale Mountains

Bale Mountains

File:Superscript textThe Bale Mountains are a range of mountains in the Oromia Region of southeast Ethiopia, south of the Awash River....
, but melted at the beginning of the Holocene

Holocene

The Holocene is a geological Epoch which began approximately 11,700 years ago . According to traditional geological thinking, the Holocene continues to the present....
. The mountains descend in a huge escarpment to the Red Sea

Red Sea

The Red Sea is a salt water inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb sound and the Gulf of Aden....
and more steadily to the Indian Ocean. Socotra

Socotra

Socotra or Soqotra is a small archipelago of four islands and islets in the Indian Ocean off the coast of the Horn of Africa some south of the Arabian peninsula, belonging to the Yemen....
is a small island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia. Its size is 3,600 km² (1,390 sq mi) and it is a territory of Yemen

Yemen

Yemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is an Arab country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. Yemen has an estimated population of more than 23 million people and is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the North, the Red Sea to the West, the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden to the South, and Oman to the east....
, the southernmost country on the Arabian peninsula

Arabian Peninsula

The Arabian Peninsula , Arabia, Arabistan, and the Arabian subcontinent is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia. The area is an important part of the Middle East and plays a critically important geopolitics role because of its vast reserves of petroleum and natural gas....
. The lowlands of the Horn are generally arid in spite of their proximity to the equator. This is because the winds of the tropical monsoon

Monsoon

A monsoon is a seasonal prevailing wind that lasts for several months. The term was first used in English in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and neighboring countries to refer to the big seasonal winds blowing from the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea in the southwest bringing heavy rainfall to the region....
s that give seasonal rains to the Sahel

Sahel

File:Sahel Map-Africa rough.pngFile:AT0713 map.pngThe Sahel or Sahel Belt is a semi-arid tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion in Africa, which forms the transition between the Sahara to the north and the slightly less arid savanna belt to the south, known as the Sudan ....
and the Sudan

Sudan (region)

The Sudan, from the Arabic language bil?d as-s?d?n or "land of the Black people" , is a geographic region stretching from West to Eastern Africa....
blow from the west. Consequently, they lose their moisture upon reaching Djibouti and Somalia, with the result that most of the Horn receives little rainfall during the monsoon season. On the windward side in the west and center of Ethiopia, and the extreme south of Eritrea, monsoonal rainfall is heavy. In the mountains of Ethiopia, many areas receive over 2,000 mm (78 in) per year, and even Asmara

Asmara

Asmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population of around 579,000 people. At an elevation of 2,400 meters , Asmara is on the edge of an escarpment that is both the northwestern edge of the Great Rift Valley and of the Eritrean highlands....
receives an average of 570 mm (23 in). This rainfall is the sole source of water for many areas far from Ethiopia, most famously for Egypt

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
, which — in terms of rainfall — is the driest nation on Earth.

In the winter, the northeasterly trade winds do not provide any moisture except in mountainous areas of northern Somalia, where rainfall in late autumn can produce annual totals as high as 500 mm (20 in). On the eastern coast, a strong upwelling

Upwelling

An Upwelling is an physical oceanography phenomenon that involves wind-driven motion of dense, cooler, and usually nutrient-rich water towards the ocean surface, replacing the warmer, usually nutrient-depleted surface water....
and the fact that the winds blow parallel to the coast means annual rainfall can be as low as 51 mm (2 in).

Temperatures on the Red Sea coast are some of the hottest in the world, typically around 41°C (106°F) in July and 32°C (90°F) in January. On the east coast, owing to the upwelling, they are somewhat, cooler but still hot. As elevation increases, temperatures decrease, so that at Asmara

Asmara

Frost

Frost is the solid deposition of water vapor from Saturation air. It is formed when solid surfaces are cooled to below the dew point of the adjacent air....
s are frequent on cloudless nights. On the highest peaks of the Simien Mountains, however, temperatures rarely reach 14°C (57°F) and can be as low as –10°C (14°F) on cloudless nights.

History

Ancient history

The Kingdom of Aksum (also known as "Axum") was an ancient state located in the north of modern-day Ethiopia and parts of Eritrea that thrived between the 1st and 7th centuries. Due to the Horn's strategic location, it has been used to restrict access to the Red Sea

Red Sea

The Red Sea is a salt water inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb sound and the Gulf of Aden....
in the past.

The region was also a source of biological resources during the Antiquity

Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome....
: The Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
ians, Greeks

Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
and Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
s sent expeditions to the region for frankincense

Frankincense

Frankincense, also called olibanum , is an Aroma compound resin obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia, particularly Boswellia sacra ....
, myrrh

Myrrh

Myrrh is a reddish-brown resinous material, the dried Plant sap of a number of trees, but primarily from Commiphora myrrha, native to Yemen, Somalia, the eastern parts of Ethiopia and Commiphora gileadensis, native to Jordan....
, dragon's blood

Dragon's blood

Dragon's blood is a bright red resin that is obtained from different species of a number of distinct plant genera: Croton , Dracaena , Daemonorops, Calamus rotang and Pterocarpus....
or cinnabar

Cinnabar

Cinnabar, sometimes written cinnabarite, is a name applied to red mercury sulfide , or native vermilion, the common ore of mercury . The name comes from the Greek language - "kinnabari" - used by Theophrastus, and was probably applied to several distinct substances....
and took these commodities back along the Incense Route. Therefore the Romans called this region Regio Aromatica. It is believed to also contain the fabled Egyptian Land of Punt

Land of Punt

The Land of Punt, also called Pwenet, or Pwene by the ancient Egyptians, at times synonymous with Ta netjer, the "land of the god", was a fabled site in the Horn of Africa and was known for producing and exporting gold, aromatic resins, African Blackwood, ebony, ivory, slaves and wild animals....
.

The Horn was also part of a network of ports that extended down the coast of Africa, from the Persian Gulf as part of a larger and ancient commerce route along the greater Indian Ocean rim.

Modern history

In recent decades, the Horn of Africa has been a region continuously in crisis. Ethiopia occupies a predominant position in the Horn because of its demographic importance: about 85% of the area's population live in this country. Large parts of the Horn of Africa were colonized by Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
: Eritrea

Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the Country of Eritrea, is a country in Northeast Africa. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast....
(1880-1941), the Italian Somaliland

Italian Somaliland

Italian Somaliland was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy from the 1880s until 1941 in the territory of the modern-day Horn of Africa nation of Somalia....
protectorate (1890-1960) and a brief occupation of Ethiopia

Ethiopia

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927....
established in North Somalia (British Somaliland

British Somaliland

British Somaliland was a British Empire protectorate in the north part of the Horn of Africa. The protectorate incorporated most of what is identified as Maakhir, Puntland, and Somaliland....
) and France in Djibouti

Djibouti

Muslim

:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits "....
s and Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism#Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus and interpreted by Christians to have been prophesied in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament....
s for resources and living space, as well as between nationalism

Nationalism

Nationalism refers to an ideology, a feeling, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. While there is significant debate over the historical origins of nations, nearly all Expert accept that nationalism, at least as an ideology and social movement, is a Modernity phenomenon originating in Europe....
and Marxism-Leninism

Marxism-Leninism

Marxism-Leninism is a communist ideology stream that emerged as the mainstream tendency among the Communist parties in the 1920s as it was adopted as the ideological foundation of the Communist International during Stalin's era....
in modern times. The rest of the region also faces several concurrent problems: Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa....
is still caught up in a civil war which first began in the late 1980s, while Ethiopia and Eritrea regularly clash.

Moreover, the region is regularly stricken by natural catastrophe

Natural disaster

A natural disaster is the consequence of a natural hazard which affects human activities. Human vulnerability, exacerbated by the lack of planning or appropriate emergency management, leads to financial, environmental or human losses....
s, such as drought

Drought

A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation ....
s or flood

Flood

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land, a deluge. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide....
s that hit rural

Rural

Rural areas are large and isolated areas of a country, often with low populations. Today, 75 percent of the United States' inhabitants live in suburban and urban areas, but cities occupy only 2 percent of the country....
areas particularly hard. As a result, the region has some of the world's highest levels of malnutrition

Malnutrition

Malnutrition is a general term for a medical condition caused by an improper or inadequate diet and nutrition.According to the World Health Organization, hunger and malnutrition are the single gravest threats to the world's public health and malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases....
and is continuously threatened with a major humanitarian crisis

Humanitarian crisis

A humanitarian crisis is an event or series of events which represents a critical threat to the health, safety, security or wellbeing of a community or other large group of people, usually over a wide area....
. Between 1982 and 1992, about two million people died in the Horn of Africa due to this combination of war and famine

Famine

A famine is a widespread shortage of food that may apply to any faunal species, which phenomenon is usually accompanied by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased death....
.

Since 2002 The Horn of Africa has been a major focus of attention by the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, and eleven African nations regarding the War on Terrorism

War on Terrorism

The War on Terrorism or War on Terror are the common terms for the military, political, legal and ideological conflict against Islamic terrorism and Muslim militants, and specifically used in reference to operations by the United States, since the September 11 attacks....
.

Culture and ethnicity

The countries of the Horn of Africa are culturally linked together. Local people have been using the plow for cultivation and kept the Arabian dromedary

Dromedary

The Dromedary camel is a large even-toed ungulate. It is often referred to as the one-humped camel, Arabian camel, or simply as the "dromedary"....
as domestic animals for a long time and for the most part represent a unique cultural and racial bloc on the continent.

Some important ethno-linguistic groups in the Horn of Africa are:

In Djibouti: the Afar (Danakil) and the Somali
Somali people

Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic languages subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages language family....
(Issa)

In Eritrea: the Bilen
Bilen people

The Bilen, Blin or Bilin are an ethnic group of south-central Eritrea, in and around the city of Keren, Eritrea, and south toward Asmara, the nation's capital....
, the Afar
Afar people

Afar are an ethnic group in the Horn of Africa who reside principally in the Danakil Desert in the Afar of Ethiopia, as well as in Eritrea and Djibouti....
, the Hedareb
Hedareb people

The Hedareb people include the Beni-Amer people who have retained the use of the Beja language, To-Bedawi . They also include the subtribes: Hashish, Labat, and Halenqua....
(Beni-Amer
Beni-Amer

Beni-Amer , they are a mixed ethnic group who united in the fourteenth century from Tigre, Beja and small portions Biher-Tigrinya ethnic groups of Eritrea, and occupy the borders between much of Eritrea's Barka valley and Kassala area of Eastern Sudan....
/Beja
Beja people

The Beja are an ethnic group dwelling in parts of North Africa and the Horn of Africa....
), the Kunama
Kunama people

The Kunama are a Nilotic ethnic group living in Eritrea and Ethiopia, making up only 2 percent of the population of Eritrea, where they are one of the smallest ethnic groups....
(Baza), the Nara
Nara people

The Nara are a Nilotic ethnic group living in Eritrea and make up less than 1% of the population. The Nara people are generally Muslim. The Nara are divided into four subtribes, the Higir, Mogareb, Koyta, Santora....
(Nialetic), the Saho
Saho people

The Saho , sometimes called Soho, are an ethnic group living largely in the Southern Region, Eritrea and Northern Red Sea Region, Eritrea regions of Eritrea, but some also live in adjacent parts of Ethiopia....
(Irob), the Rashaida
Rashaida people

The Rashaida are a Bedouin tribe populating either side of the Red Sea as well as other parts of the Arabian Peninsula. They descend from a major Arab tribe in the Peninsula called Banu Abs....
, the Tigre
Tigre people

The Tigre are an ethnic group of north Eritrea who speak the Tigre language.They are a mostly Muslim nomadic people who inhabit the northern, western, and coastal lowlands of Eritrea as well as bordering areas in Sudan....
, and the Tigrinya
Tigray-Tigrinya people

For other uses please see TigreThe Tigray-Tigrinya are an ethnic group who live in the southern, central and northern parts of Eritrea and the northern highlands of Ethiopia's Tigray province....
. The Jeberti
Jeberti

The Jeberti are a Tigrinya language- and Arabic language-speaking group mostly found in Eritrea with a wider diaspora community in neighboring countries, primarily in the Arabian Peninsula....
s are Muslim
Muslim

:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits "....
Tigrinyas who consider themselves as a separate ethnicity, but are not recognized by other sources.

In Ethiopia: Amhara
Amhara people

Amhara is an ethnic group in the central highlands of Ethiopia. Numbering about 19.8 million people, it comprises 26 percent of the country's population, according to the most recent census ....
s, Afars, Agaw
Agaw

The Agaw are a people of Ethiopia. They are primarily bilingual, speaking both Agaw languages , as well as Amharic language, Tigrinya language or Tigre language....
groups, Gurage
Gurage

Gurage is an ethnic group in Ethiopia. According to the 2007 national census, they number 1,867,377 people , of whom 792,659 are urban dwellers....
s, Harar
Harar

Harar is an eastern city in Ethiopia, and the capital of the modern Harari Region Regions of Ethiopia of Ethiopia. The city is located on a hilltop, in the eastern extension of the Ethiopian highlands about five hundred kilometers from Addis Ababa with an elevation of 1885 meters....
is (also Hadere or Adere), the Irob (Catholic Sahos), Sidamas, Oromo, Saho, Somali
Somali people

Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic languages subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages language family....
, Tigrayans
Tigray-Tigrinya people

For other uses please see TigreThe Tigray-Tigrinya are an ethnic group who live in the southern, central and northern parts of Eritrea and the northern highlands of Ethiopia's Tigray province....
, as well as many other small groups (see also ethnicities listed at Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region
Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region

Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region is one of the nine Regions of Ethiopia of Ethiopia. It comprises the former Regions 7-11....
) .

In Somalia: the Somali
Somali people

Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic languages subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages language family....

Economy

States of the region depend largely on a few key export

Export

Export goods or services are provided to foreign consumers by domestic Production theory basics. It is a good that is sent to another country for sale....
s:

Ethiopia: Coffee
Coffee

Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the Coffea. Caffeinated coffee has a stimulating effect in humans....
80% of total exports.
Somalia: Banana
Banana

File:Banana and cross section.jpgBanana is the common name for a fruit and also the herbaceous plants of the genus Musa which produce this commonly eaten fruit....
s and livestock
Livestock

Livestock is the term used to refer to a domesticated animal intentionally reared in an agricultural setting to produce things such as food or fibre, or for its labour....
over 50% of total exports.

Ecology

The Horn of Africa is a Conservation International

Conservation International

Conservation International is a nonprofit organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, that seeks to protect Earth's biodiversity "hotspots," high-biodiversity wilderness areas as well as important marine regions around the globe....
Biodiversity hotspot

Biodiversity hotspot

A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is threatened with destruction.The concept of biodiversity hotspots was originated by Dr....
and one of the two entirely arid ones. However the Horn of Africa suffers largely from overgrazing

Overgrazing

Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to livestock grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It reduces the usefulness of the land and is one cause of desertification and erosion....
and only 5% of its original habitat

Habitat (ecology)

A habitat is an ecological or Natural_environment area that is inhabited by a particular animal or plant species. It is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds a species population....
still remains. On Socotra, another great threat is the development of infrastructure

Infrastructure

Infrastructure can be defined as the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise , or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function....
.

Fauna

About 220 mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s are found in the Horn of Africa. Among threatened species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
of the region, we find several antelope

Antelope

Antelope are ruminant hoofed mammals of the family Bovidae in the order of even-toed ungulates. These animals are spread relatively evenly throughout the various subfamily of Bovidae and many are more closely related to cows or goats than to each other....
s such as the beira

Beira (antelope)

The Beira is a small antelope that inhabits arid regions of Somalia, Djibouti, and eastern Ethiopia.The Beira stands 1.5 to high at the shoulder and weighs between 20-25 pounds....
, the dibatag

Dibatag

The dibatag, or Clarke's gazelle, Ammodorcas clarkei, is an antelope found in sandy grasslands of Ethiopia and Somalia. Not a true gazelle, it is similarly marked, with a long, furry black tail which is raised in flight....
, the silver dikdik and the Speke’s gazelle. Other remarkable species include the Somali wild ass

Somali Wild Ass

The Somali Wild Ass is a subspecies of the African Wild Ass. It was found in the Southern Red Sea region of Eritrea, the Afar Region of Ethiopia, and Somalia....
, the desert warthog

Desert Warthog

The Desert Warthog is a species of even-toed ungulate in the Suidae family. It is found in Kenya, Somalia, possibly Djibouti, possibly Eritrea, and possibly Ethiopia....
, the Hamadryas Baboon

Hamadryas Baboon

The Hamadryas Baboon is a baboon from the Old World monkey family. It is the northernmost of all the baboons; its range extends from the Red Sea in Egypt to Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia....
, the Somali pygmy gerbil

Somalia Gerbil

The Somalia gerbil, Gerbillus dunni, is distributed mainly in Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti.References...
, the ammodile

Ammodile

The Ammodile or Walo is a species of rodent in the Muridae family. It is the only species in the genus Ammodillus.It is found in Ethiopia and Somalia....
, and the Speke’s pectinator

Gundi

Gundis are a group of small, stocky rodents found in Africa. They live in rocky deserts across the northern parts of the continent. The family comprises 4 living genus and 5 species , as well as numerous extinct genera and species ....
. The Grevy's zebra

Grevy's Zebra

Gr?vy's zebra , sometimes known as the Imperial zebra, is the largest species of zebra. It is found in the wild in Kenya and Ethiopia. Compared to other zebras, it is tall, has large ears, and its stripes are narrower....
is the unique wild equid

Equidae

Equidae is the Taxonomy Family of horses and related animals, including the extant horses, donkeys, and zebras, and many other species known only from fossils....
of the region.

Some important bird

Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
species of the Horn are the Bulo Burti boubou

Bulo Burti Boubou

The Somali Boubou is a medium-size bushshrike. It was split from the Tropical Boubou as a result of DNA sequence analysis, and this change in status was recognized by the International Ornithological Committee in 2008....
, the golden-winged grosbeak

Golden-winged grosbeak

The genus Rhynchostruthus is a small group of finches in the family Fringillinae. Commonly known as golden-winged grosbeaks, they are attractive, chunky, medium-sized, robust-billed songbirds restricted to the southern Arabian and northern Somalian regions....
, the Warsangli linnet

Linnet

IntroductionThe Linnet, Carduelis cannabina, is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.This bird breeds in Europe, western Asia and north Africa....
, or the Djibouti Francolin

Djibouti Francolin

The Djibouti Francolin, Francolinus ochropectus, is one of over forty species of francolins, a group of birds in the Phasianidae family. It is critically endangered and found only in Djibouti, a nation in eastern Africa....
.

The Horn of Africa holds more endemic

Endemic (ecology)

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a particular geographic location, such as a specific island, Habitat type, nation, or other defined zone....
reptile

Reptile

Reptiles, or members of the class Reptilia, are air-breathing, cold-blooded vertebrates that have skin covered in scale as opposed to hair or feathers....
s than any other region in Africa, with over 285 species total (and about 90 species found exclusively in the region). Among endemic reptile genera, there are Haackgreerius
Haackgreerius

Haackgreerius is a genus of skinks.ClassificationGenus Haackgreerius*Haackgreerius miopus...
, Haemodracon
Haemodracon

Haemodracon is a small genus of rare geckos from Socotra Island....
, Ditypophis, Pachycalamus and Aeluroglena. Half of these genera are uniquely found on Socotra. Unlike reptiles, amphibian

Amphibian

Amphibians , such as frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and caecilians, are cold-blooded animals that metamorphose from a juvenile, water-breathing form to an adult, air-breathing form....
s are poorly represented in the region.

There are about 100 species of freshwater

Freshwater

Freshwater is a word that refers to bodies of water such as ponds, lakes, rivers and streams containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids....
fish

Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
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

Cavefish

The cavefishes are found in caves and adapted to life in the dark, notably lacking fucntional eyes and pigmentation, as a result having a pale or whitish color....
.

Flora

It is estimated that about 5,000 species of vascular plant

Vascular plant

Vascular plants are those plants that have lignin tissue for conducting water, minerals, and photosynthetic products through the plant. Vascular plants include the ferns, clubmosses, flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms....
s are found in the Horn, about half of which are endemic. Endemism is most developed in Socotra

Socotra

Socotra or Soqotra is a small archipelago of four islands and islets in the Indian Ocean off the coast of the Horn of Africa some south of the Arabian peninsula, belonging to the Yemen....
and Northern Somalia. The region has two endemic plant families

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
: the Barbeyaceae and the Dirachmaceae. Among the other remarkable species, there are the cucumber tree found only on Socotra (Dendrosicyos socotrana), the Bankoualé palm, the yeheb nut

Cordeauxia edulis

Cordeauxia edulis, also known as the ye'eb, yeheb or jeheb nut is a species of tree from the monotypic genus Cordeauxia....
, and the Somali cyclamen

Cyclamen

Cyclamen is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants, traditionally classified in the family Primulaceae, but in recent years reclassified in the family Myrsinaceae....
.

External links

[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/dj.html CIA World Factbook: Djibouti]
[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/er.html CIA World Factbook: Eritrea]
[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/et.html CIA World Factbook: Ethiopia]
[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/so.html CIA World Factbook: Somalia]

Horn of Africa

Geography and climate

History

Ancient history

Modern history

Culture and ethnicity

Economy

Ecology

Fauna

Flora

See also

External links