Claim: Vehicle registration plates of Somalia, a sovereign country in the Horn of Africa, dates back to 1913 when the very first Italian registration plates were rectangular with a white background and a special military service plates were used for Italian colonial troops.
Evidence: The very first Italian registration plates, from 1913 to the end of the 1920s, were rectangular, with a white background and with the name or initials of the colony in red followed by the registration number, on a single line, but the documentation on this is fragmentary. For the Italian colonial troops, however, special military service plates were used with the initials SOM (Somalia) or T (Tripolitania) in front. Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia is a sovereign country in the Horn of Africa.