The Horn of Africa (Somali: Geeska Afrika, Oromo: Gaaffaa Afriikaa, Amharic: የአፍሪካ ቀንድ, romanized: yäafrika qänd, Tigrinya: ቀርኒ ኣፍሪቃ}, romanized: q’ärnī afīrīqa, Arabic: القرن الأفريقي, romanized: al-qarn al-‘afrīqī) (shortened to HoA) is a peninsula in Africa.[1][2][3][4] It extends hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. The area is the easternmost projection of the African continent. Referred to in ancient and medieval times as the land of the Barbara and Habesha,[5][6][7] the Horn of Africa denotes the region containing the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.[8][3][2][1]
It covers approximately 2 million km2 (770 thousand sq mi) and is inhabited by roughly 115 million people (Ethiopia: 96.6 million, Somalia: 15.4 million, Eritrea: 6.4 million, and Djibouti: 0.81 million). Regional studies on the Horn of Africa are carried out, among others, in the fields of Ethiopian Studies as well as Somali Studies.