Italian refugees from Libya Italy and soon most of them emigrated in the early 1950s to the Americas (mainly to Canada, Venezuela, Argentina and the United States) and to western Europe (France, Benelux, etc..). After several years under British mandate, on December 24, 1951 Libya declared its independence as the United Kingdom of Libya (a constitutional, hereditary monarchy under King Idris). In 1952 started the exodus of most of the remaining Italian colonial settlers, mainly those in areas away from the main cities. Although in the late 1950s most of the 110000 Italians living in 1940 Italian Libya had already left the former colony,
Administrative divisions of Somalia became part of Italian East Africa with Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Eritrea. Italian Somaliland was one of six governorates of the new colony, the Somalia Governorate, and incorporated Somali-inhabited parts of the former Abyssinia. The governorate was subdivided into 10 commissariats, which were themselves divided into residencies. Following World War II, the Italian-administered Trust Territory of Somalia consisted of six Regions. The British Somaliland protectorate also consisted of two Regions. Upon independence in 1960, the Somali Republic maintained the 12 districts of the former Italian Somaliland and British Somaliland that merged to form the new country. In 1964, a new Northeastern