Mogadishu is Somalia’s nominal capital city , eastern Africa, on the Indian Ocean.
In 2004, the population was estimated to be about 2,450,000.
Mogadishu was settled by Arab colonists about the beginning of the tenth century.
The origin of its name is unclear: one version claims it as the Somali version of the Arabic name "maqad shah", imperial seat of the shah, another version claims that it is a Somali version of the Swahili "mwyu ma", last northern city.
The city was occupied in 1871 by the sultan of Zanzibar, who leased it to the Italians in 1892.
In 1905, Italy made it the capital of its colony of Italian Somaliland.
In the World War II, Mogadishu was captured and occupied by the British forces operating from Kenya.
Somalia's long civil war started in the 1970s and rebel forces took the city in 1990.
Many parts of Mogadishu have been seriously damaged by the intense battling between clan-based rebel factions.
In 1992, UN peacekeeping forces were stationed in the city, but when they left, in 1995, the city was again the scene of fighting.
Still today Mogadishu continues to be a dangerous city as clan and faction fighting rages unabated. The city is the seat of the internationally-recognized Transitional National Government, ostensibly an interim government for the entire nation of Somalia, which unfortunately has no real influence outside the radius of a few blocks beyond its headquarters.