Land, farming and livestock
Blackheaded Somali sheep: the breed behind the livestock trade
The Blackheaded Somali is Somalia's main breed of sheep: white with a black head, hairy rather than woolly, without horns, and with a fat rump that stores energy for the dry season. It is raised for meat across Somalia, Djibouti, eastern Ethiopia and northern Kenya, and is one of the animals most shipped to the Gulf. South Africa's Dorper and Blackheaded Persian breeds come from it.
What it looks like
The Blackheaded Somali is a breed of domestic sheep. It is white with a black head. It is a hair sheep, meaning it grows hair, not wool, and it is polled, meaning it has no horns. It belongs to the fat-rumped group of breeds, which store fat on the rump (Wikipedia, Blackheaded Somali).
The fat rump works as a store of energy. Animals draw on it in the long dry seasons, when grazing is poor. Hair instead of wool keeps the animal cooler in heat.
Where it is kept
The breed is found throughout Somalia, in Djibouti, in eastern Ethiopia, in northern Kenya, and as far west as the Toposa area of south-eastern South Sudan (Wikipedia, Blackheaded Somali). In other words, it covers almost all the lands where Somalis herd.
Somalia reports two breeds of sheep to the FAO's Domestic Animal Diversity Information System (DAD-IS): the Blackheaded Somali and the Somali Arab (Wikipedia, Blackheaded Somali).
Meat and exports
The breed is raised mainly for meat and is a major export, chiefly to the Arabian Peninsula through the port of Berbera (Wikipedia, Blackheaded Somali). The same source names the markets of Burao and Yirowe as among the largest livestock markets in the Horn of Africa, with as many as 10,000 sheep and goats sold a day.
Sheep and goats are counted together in trade figures. The Central Bank recorded 5.9 million sheep and goats among the animals exported in 2024 (Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025). At Berbera alone, sheep and goat exports ran at 2.8 to 3.2 million a year in 2013 to 2016, then fell to about 1.3 million in 2017 and 2018 after Saudi Arabia's partial ban (Mtimet and others, Global Food Security, 2021).
| Year | Sheep and goats from Berbera | To Saudi Arabia |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 2,852,875 | 2,339,358 |
| 2014 | 3,054,416 | 2,412,989 |
| 2015 | 3,159,883 | 2,875,494 |
| 2016 | 2,806,612 | 2,413,686 |
| 2017 | 1,327,185 | 1,088,292 |
| 2018 | 1,285,307 | 1,066,805 |
Source for the table: Mtimet and others, 2021, Table 1.
Breeds that came from it
South Africa's Blackheaded Persian derives from the Blackheaded Somali (Wikipedia, Blackheaded Somali). The Blackheaded Persian was in turn crossed with the Dorset Horn in South Africa to create the Dorper, now one of the most widely farmed meat sheep in the world (Wikipedia, Dorper).
Related pages
Sources
- Wikipedia, Blackheaded Somali · en.wikipedia.org
- Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025 · centralbank.gov.so
- Mtimet and others, Global Food Security, 2021 · pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Wikipedia, Dorper · en.wikipedia.org
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Where this matters
- Hargeysa (Hargeisa) and Woqooyi GalbeedWoqooyi Galbeed is the north-western region that holds Hargeisa (Hargeysa) and the port of Berbera, with about 1 to 1.45 million people.
- Laascaanood (Las Anod) and SoolSool is a region in the north with Las Anod (Laascaanood) as its capital and about 571,000 people.
- Ceerigaabo (Erigavo) and SanaagSanaag is a region on the northern coast with Erigavo (Ceerigaabo) as its capital and about 446,000 people.
- Boosaaso (Bosaso) and BariBari is Puntland's north-east region, with the port city of Bosaso (Boosaaso) as its capital and about 1.28 million people.
Same era
- Australia18,401 people of Somali ancestry and 8,101 born in Somalia lived in Australia at the 2021 Census, more than half in Victoria. History, work, issues.
- Birmingham (Somali diaspora)About 17,000 to 21,600 Somalis live in Birmingham (Census 2021), mostly in Nechells, Newtown, Small Heath and Alum Rock. History, work, health and ties home.
- Bristol (Somali diaspora)9,167 people in Bristol identified as Somali or Somalilander in Census 2021, the city's largest minority group. Where they live, work, housing, leaders and ties home.
- Calgary, Alberta, Canada2,845 people of Somali origin lived in Calgary at the 2021 Census, plus 890 in Brooks. How they came, who serves them and what they face.
- Denmark (Somali diaspora)21,885 people of Somali origin lived in Denmark in 2026, half born there. Numbers, history, work, permit reviews, and ties home.
- DjiboutiAbout 13,900 refugees from Somalia live in Djibouti (Aug 2026): numbers since 1990, Ali Addeh, Holl-Holl, the 2017 refugee law, Arta 2000 and 2025 returns.
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