| Shaped something like a fish hook, Somalia is located on the Horn of Africa, the northeastern corner of the continent. The country was formed in 1960 by uniting the former British Somaililand, which faces north on the Gulf of Aden, with the former Italian Somaliland, which mostly faces east southeast on the Indian Ocean. This union has never been complete and since 1991 the country has been splintered by repeated secession and conflict. The Republic of Somaliland, which controls most of the former British Somaliland, declared its independence of Somalia in 1991 and has been seeking international recognition. Lighthouses of Somaliland are described on a separate page. For the rest of the country the Federal Government of Somalia, organized in 2012, is recognized by the United Nations and is attempting to create a federal union of semi-autonomous states.. In March 2024, following changes to the federal constitution enacted by the federal legislature, the government of the northern state of Puntland announced it was breaking ties with the federal government and would henceforth operate as if it were independent, although it continues to style itself as a state of Somalia. This limits the federal goverment's authority to the four states and the capital region south of Puntland. And its authority is quite limited since a large part of the interior in the hands of the Islamist Al-Shahaab movement., governing as the Ilslamic Emnirate of Somalia. The federal government does control most of the coast including the larger coastal communities. Somali and Arabic are official languages in Somalia. Unlike Arabic, Somali is written in the Latin alphabet. The Somali word for a lighthouse is laydh; jasiirad is an island and dekedda is a harbor. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume D of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Hobyo Light unattributed ex-Panoramio photo no longer online but found in a Google Images search |
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![]() Juba River Light, May 2019 photo copyright Marcus Koehne; used by permission |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Puntland | South: Kenya
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted July 1, 2005. Checked and revised February 15, 2026. Lighthouses: 14. Site copyright 2026 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.