In Need of People

Somalia region's population was not small by East African standards. At least compared with the Southwest, nearly 700,000 people lived on over 800,000 square kilometers of land, and all of them were immigrants. Because of its geographical location, Somalia had been among the first places to clear out its indigenous population.

Of course, the Somali Desert covered no small area, but it was not the entirety of Somalia region. The east was dominated by desert, while the west mainly had a savanna climate. The Somalia region controlled by East Africa was considerably larger than Somalia's territory in the previous life.

Although the northern coast had not been occupied by East Africa, large swathes of western land that should originally have belonged to Ethiopia had been divided among Northern Province, Juba Province, and Turkana Province. At the same time, parts of what had once been Kenya were incorporated into Juba Province. This was also an important reason why East Africa's Somalia region was even larger than Somalia in the previous life.

Although the western tropical savanna climate offered a somewhat better environment than the tropical desert climate, Somalia region's population was still mainly concentrated in the eastern oases and along the rivers.

"By 1880, Northern Province had developed more than 600,000 hectares of farmland. More than 70 percent of it consisted of tropical plantations opened up in recent years. They produced a small amount of grain, but they were not intended to make the province self-sufficient in food. Their main purpose was to provide food security for the troops stationed along the northern border at any time. Most of the remaining food shortfall was shipped in from the south by sea, but the province's food self-sufficiency rate had still reached around 60 percent." Rolman Karin introduced the situation to the commissioner