Somalia Channel and Indian Ocean to the east, and Ethiopia to the west. It lies between latitudes 2°S and 12°N, and longitudes 41° and 52°E. Strategically located at the mouth of the Bab el Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, the country occupies the tip of a region that, due to its resemblance on the map to a rhinoceros' horn, is commonly referred to as the Horn of Africa. Somalia has the longest coastline on the mainland of Africa, with a seaboard that stretches . Its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. The nation has
2010 timeline of the War in Somalia recaptured the city. Initial reports indicate that 11 al-Shabaab fighters and 1 government soldier died in the battle. Continued fighting has also been reported in the city of Beledweyne. On October 21, the African Union appealed to the United Nations for an air and naval blockade of Somalia. The AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Ramtane Lamamra insisted that such an action was necessary to curb the flow of weapons to al-Shabaab and other Islamist militants in the region, and also called for a total of 20,000 AU peacekeepers to be deployed to Somalia, up from the current deployment of