Somalilandsun – Three states in southern Somalia are keen to become an autonomous region known as Jubaland reports medeshivalley.com.
IHS Jane’s examines why the central government opposes these plans, despite initially backing the idea.
A centre of trade, commerce, agriculture and rich in marine resources, Kismayo and the surrounding Jubaland area is of great economic importance to Somalia. The region also has the potential to hold the balance of power in the country, meaning all important actors – indigenous or foreign – want to control it. Strategically located at the southern tip of Somalia on the Indian Ocean coast, it has the biggest working sea port in Somalia and two airports.
Kismayo and the surrounding region has been fought over by warlords, radical Islamists in the Shabab and clan militias (mainly from the Darod clan) since the start of civil war in 1991, in the process displacing approximately 500,000 refugees to camps in Kenya.
Read full document:Somalia’s-Jubaland-conundrum
