City (pop., 1999 est.: metro. area, 1,162,000), capital of Somalia , located north of the Equator on the Indian Ocean.
Founded in the 10th century by Arab settlers, it carried on trade with the Arab states and later with the Portuguese. It fell under control of the sultan of Zanzibar in 1871. Italy leased the port in 1892 and purchased it in 1905. Subsequently the capital of Italian Somaliland and of the Somalia trust territory, it became the capital of independent Somalia in 1960. Civil war, beginning in the 1980s, caused widespread destruction in the city.