Hargeisa

Hargeisa is the capital and largest city of Somaliland, a self-declared state in the Maroodi Jeex region that is internationally regarded as part of Somalia, sitting at an elevation of about 1,334 meters in the Galgodon highlands. Its population was about 1.2 million in 2019. Founded around 1860 by Sheikh Madar as an Islamic settlement known as "Little Harar," the city was devastated in the late 1980s when forces loyal to Siad Barre destroyed roughly ninety percent of it during the Isaaq genocide of the Somaliland war of independence. Since 1991 it has been rebuilt on a large scale, largely financed by remittances and local entrepreneurship, into a commercial center for finance, retail, gem-cutting and trade.