NAIROBI ,Kenya 13 June,2013 (AFP)-Conflict in Somalia's volatile southern
Jubaland region has pitted rival clans, central government and the competing
interests of neighbouring nations against one other.
Many eye the economic, strategic and political profits of the region, which
includes a lucrative charcoal industry, fertile farmland along the Juba
river as well as potential off-shore oil and gas deposits.
Bordering Kenya to the west and Ethiopia to the north, the region contains
three districts: Middle and Lower Juba and Gedo, with the main city the key
port of Kismayo.
It is also one of the most diverse regions in terms of Somali clans -- with
the Ogadeni, Marehan and Harti all present, almost all of them with
well-armed militia forces.
Kismayo has changed hands more than a dozen times since the collapse of
central government in 1991.
Former Islamist chief Ahmed Madobe, commander of the powerful Ras Kamboni
milita from the Ogadeni clan, declared himself "president" of Jubaland in
May after a conference of some 500 elders and local leaders.
Several others, including former Somali defence minister Barre Hirale from
the rival Marehan clan, have also said they too are "president".
Neither the title nor the region itself is recognised by the weak central
government in Mogadishu.
Jubaland is only one of several Somali regions to oppose central control,
from fiercely independent Somaliland along the Gulf of Aden, to Puntland in
the northeast, which recognises a federal government but says that it has no
role in its internal affairs.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab, who fled Kismayo ahead of invading Kenyan troops
alongside Madobe's forces in 2012, remain in control of swathes of
countryside in the region.
Ethiopia is also a key regional player, with the landlocked nation eying
Kismayo as another possible route to the sea.
Addis Ababa is wary of Madobe, who hails from the same Ogadeni clan as
rebels fighting inside Ethiopia's ethnic Somali Ogaden region.
Kenya wants a security buffer zone to protect its valuable tourism industry,
a proposed major port near the border with Somalia at Lamu, and hopes of
offshore oil and gas finds.
It also hopes stability in southern Somalia would let it send back the half
a million Somali refugees it currently hosts.
Kenya previously backed former Somali defence minister and French-educated
academic Mohamed Abdi Mohamed -- also known as Gandhi -- to control the
region, then dubbed "Azania".
------------[ Sent via the dehai-wn mailing list by dehai.org]--------------
Received on Wed Jun 12 2013 - 22:45:30 EDT