Somalia: January 19, 2004

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raids into Ethiopia.

The UN and the World Bank managed to conduct a survey of social and economic conditions in Somalia. They found that 43 percent of the population is barely getting by, and dependent on foreign aid or local charity to survive. Nearly half the workforce is unemployed. Only about a quarter of the children have any access to health care. Some 75 percent of men and 87 percent of women are illiterate. Among men, gun ownership is much higher than literacy. But economic activity is difficult because of all the banditry and looting. The warlords basically live off the followers of other warlords, as well as whatever criminal, or legitimate business operations they can establish.

 

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