Italian Population in Somalia
The first Italians moved to Somalia at the end of the nineteenth century. However, it wasn't until after World War I that their number increased to about one thousand, a presence that primarily concentrated in the towns of Mogadishu and Merca in the Benadir region of Somalia.
The colonial emigration toward Somalia was limited initially mostly to men alone. The emigration of entire families was promoted only during the Fascist period, mainly in the agricultural developments of the Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi, near the Shebelle River. In 1920 the Societa Agricola Italo-Somala (SAIS) was founded by the Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, in order to explore the agricultural potential of central Italian Somalia and create a colony for Italian farmers.
The area of Genale in southern Somalia (near the Jubba River) was another place where Italian colonists from Turin developed a group of farms, under governor De Vecchi, that were successful for cotton and after 1931 for banana exports.
In 1940, there were 22,000 Italians in Somalia, of whom 10,000 in the capital Mogadishu (called Mogadiscio in Italian), for whom the Italian government opened some Italian schools like a Liceum.
Italian Somalis were concentrated in the cities of Mogadishu, Merca, Baidoa, Kismayo and the agricultural areas of the rivers Jubba and Shebelle (Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi).
After World War II, the number of Italians in Somali territory started to decrease and by the time of the Somali republic's independence in 1960, their numbers had dwindled to less than 10,000. Most Italian settlers returned to Italy, while others settled in the United States, United Kingdom, Finland, and Australia. By 1989, they were only 1,000 in total. Since the Somali civil war and the fall of Somali president Siad Barre's government in 1991, in Somalia remain only a handful of the old colonists. Many Italian Somalis left for United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Finland, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Middle East.
Of the latter, one of the better known Italian casualties was the former Bishop of Mogadishu, Salvatore Colombo, murdered in 1989. This was followed by the murder of an Italian nun, Leonella Sgorbati, in 2006. With the disappearance of Italians from Somalia, Roman Catholicism was reduced from a record high of 8500 parishioners in 1950 (0.7% of Mogadishu's population) to just 100 individuals in 2004.
Read more about this topic: Italian Somalis
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