italy created a colony around mogadishu and enlarged the territory of italian somalia after ww1 with the areas south of the juba river. in the next 20 years the italian colony grew in importance, having at hafun the biggest salt production in the world and in the scebeli river a huge production of bananas exported to europe. in 1928 was created the first airport in somalia's capital and later in 1939 was started the longest air route in africa with the linea dell'impero, a flight between rome and mogadishu.