Somalilandsun-If all goes well, the United States will celebrate its 241st birthday this summer—and that’s young by international standards. Plenty of countries on the map have been around for thousands of years. But what about the shortest-lived nations in world history? The State of Somaliland, in East Africa, is one of the weirdest of the brief candles. It only existed for five days in 1960. Or, depending on whom you ask, it’s still around and functioning pretty well as a nation today.
But according to Ken Jennings the citizens of the yet to be recognized country that withdrew from its union with Somalia after a bloody civil war that continues as a self-declared republic today, governed from Hargeisa, with its own currency, passports, flag, president, parliament, army, police force, and legal system, Somaliland considers itself to be the legal successor of the short-lived Somali state of June 1960. Continue reading Somaliland Was Only a Country for 5 Dayse
