The Kingdom of Sahil Sahil, of f icially t he Kingdom of Sahil, is a nat ion located on t he Nort heast Af rican peninsula known as t he Horn of Af rica along t he sout hern side of t he Gulf of Aden. The Sahilian nat ion is a very recent one, dat ing it s founding back only to 19 9 1 following t he dissolut ion of t he Somalian cent ral government in t hat same year and t he subsequent breaking of f of Somaliland f rom t he Somalian nat ion. Warmongering and civil war plagued t his port ion of Somalia?s history, and it was t he warlord and prof iteer General Ab Ul Hajadi who would go on to est ablish absolute rule in Somaliland, declaring t he founding of t he
Kingdom of Sahil wit h himself as it s king. Originally perceived to be a rogue self -declared st ate, t he Somalian government at f irst ref used to acknowledge Sahilian separat ion and independence, but was unable to re-est ablish cont rol over t he territory in Somaliland due to widespread internal conf lict and civil unrest . Despite receiving assist ance f rom t he internat ional communit y, Somalia remained f ract ured, and by 19 9 8 t he new Somalian government of f icially relinquished cont rol of t he Somaliland territory to t he Kingdom of Sahil. The internat ional communit y subsequent ly followed t his by recognizing t he Kingdom of Sahil as an independent st ate in t he Horn of Af rica. The Kingdom of Sahil is bordered by Somalia to t he east , Djibout i and Boura Arrei to t he nort hwest , and Et hiopia to t he sout h and west . It s territorial claim consist s of a land area of approximately 176 ,0 0 0 square kilometers (6 8 ,0 0 0 sq mi), making it roughly t he same size as Syria. It s capit al and largest cit y is Hargeisa wit h a populat ion of around 750 ,0 0 0 people in or around t he cit y and a tot al populat ion of around 2.2 million people. W it h few except ions, Sahilian cit izens are Muslims, t he overwhelming majorit y of whom belong to t he Sunni branch of Islam, alt hough small t races of pre-Islamic religious t radit ions do st ill exist in some regions and among some villages. The
Sahilian sense of ident it y is largely t ied to one of t wo et hnic groups t hat t race t heir origins back to pre-Islamic t ribes, t hose being t he Dayaha and t he Kulaasi. These et hnic dif ferences have divided t he populat ion of Sahil into t wo social st rat ums, wit h t he majorit y Dayaha being seen as ?normal? while t he minorit y lower-class Kulaasi are f requent ly regarded as second class cit izens. It is common in t he Kingdom of Sahil for et hnic Kulaasi cit izens, despite t heir racial and religious similarit ies wit h et hnic Dayaha cit izens, to be barred f rom working in cert ain businesses or at tending cert ain educat ional and polit ical inst it ut ions. Conf lict during and af ter t he Somalian Civil War led to widespread damage of civilian, economic, and milit ary inf rast ruct ure wit hin t he count ry. Following t he discovery of unt apped oil reserves in Sahil?s sout hern region of Togdheer, and under t he rut hless cont rol of King Ab Ul Hajadi, t he Kingdom of Sahil was able to recover f rom economic collapse and achieve some degree of f inancial independence. Western business interest s, including Scandanavian pet rochemical corporat ions, signed mult i-billion dollar cont ract s to est ablish exclusive drilling right s over t hese oil reserves. A signif icant amount of t his money was spent by Ab Ul Hajadi on reforming and modernizing t he nat ion?s armed forces which, unt il t hen, had consisted primarily of early Cold War Soviet arms and
