|Regions with significant populations| |Horn of Africa, Middle
East| |Related ethnic groups| Somalis (Somali: Soomaaliyeed,
Arabic: الصوماليون) are an ethnic group located in the Horn of
Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula.14 The overwhelming
majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of
the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Ethnic
Somalis number around 15-17 million and are principally
concentrated in Somalia (around 8.7 million1), Ethiopia (4.6
million2), Yemen (a little under 1 million), Kenya (900,000315),
Djibouti (464,600),4 and an unknown but large number live in
parts of the Middle East, North America and Europe. Samaale, the
oldest common ancestor of several Somali clans, is generally
regarded as the source of the ethnonym Somali. The name "Somali"
is, in turn, held to be derived from the words soo and maal,
which together mean "go and milk" — a reference to the
ubiquitous pastoralism of the Somali people.16 Another plausible
etymology proposes that the ter