Transport and infrastructure in Somalia

Road traffic

The network of roads and highways has a total length of 15,000 km. For each of the country's 17.07 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 0.88 meters. This puts Somalia in 212nd place in the global ranking. However, it is also important to note that the country's population density is very low at around 27 inhabitants per km². In this case, disproportionately long distances generally have to be covered to reach the more remote parts of the country.

With an average of 4075 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in Somalia is considered quite dangerous. This corresponds to 27.3 accident fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.3 in the USA and 17.0 worldwide.

In Somalia, traffic drives on the right-hand side of the road, i.e. people drive in the right-hand lane and overtake on the left. Oncoming traffic comes toward you on the left side. This regulation was enforced in January 1st, 1970. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.

Data sources used

• Global Health Observatory Data Repository (World Health Organization)
• UNCTAD
• Internation Union of Railways (UIC)
• CIA Factbook
• OECD Statistics
• Wikipedia (german)