Christianity in Somalia girls (who received Italian citizenship when baptized). The Bible was first translated into Somali only in 1979. According to the "World Christian Encyclopedia", the Somalia Believers Fellowship, the Somalia Mennonite Mission and the Seventh-day Adventists are present in this country. Somalia is included in the Episcopal Area of the Horn of Africa of the Anglican Diocese of Egypt, though there are no current local congregations. The Adventist Mission indicates that there are no Adventist members in Somalia, and that Christianity in general has seen little growth there. Due to the ongoing civil war in the southern part of the country,
Slavery in Somalia had previously been absent from. The Bantus inhabiting Somalia are descended from Bantu groups that had settled in Southeast Africa after the initial expansion from Nigeria/Cameroon, and whose members were later captured and sold into the Arab slave trade. Bantus are ethnically, physically, and culturally distinct from Somalis, and they have remained marginalized ever since their arrival in Somalia. All in all, the number of Bantu inhabitants in Somalia before the civil war is thought to have been about 80,000 (1970 estimate), with most concentrated between the Juba and Shabelle rivers in the south. However, recent estimates place the figure