Somalia is located on the Horn of Africa with coastlines on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. A subsistence pastoral economy dominates, with most people eking a living from camel or cattle herding with very limited farming.

After independence from Britain and Italy, the northern and southern sections united as Somalia. A corrupt and a repressive dictatorship was brought down in a bloody civil war in 1991, bringing the country to destitution. Subsequent clan warfare caused appalling famine and destruction from 1991 to 1993. With the almost the entire nation on the brink of starvation, and total anarchy prevailing, US and UN troops intervened in 1994, restoring but a small degree of stability.

Religious freedom is limited, and the state religion is Islam. Most of the country has never been exposed to the Gospel.