Gedo

For other uses, see Gedo (disambiguation).
Gedo
Gobolka Gedo
Region
Gedo Region of Somalia
Flag of Gedo
Flag
Location in Somalia
Location in Somalia
Coordinates: 2°26′17″N 41°29′3″E / 2.43806°N 41.48417°E / 2.43806; 41.48417
Country Somalia
Regional State Jubaland
CapitalGarbaharey
Government
 • GovernorAhmed Bulle Gared
Area
 • Total85,000 km2 (33,000 sq mi)
Elevation
914.4 m (3,000 ft)
Population
 (2019[1])
 • Total566,300
 • Density6.7/km2 (17/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+3 (EAT)
HDI (2021)0.318[2]
low · 9th of 18

Gedo (Somali: Gedo, Maay: Gethy, Arabic: جيذو, Italian: Ghedo or Ghedu) is an administrative region (gobol) in Jubaland, southern Somalia. Its regional capital is Garbahaarreey. The region was formed during 1974[3] and is bordered by the Ogaden in Ethiopia, the North Eastern Province in Kenya, and the Somali regions of Bakool, Bay, Jubbada Dhexe (Middle Juba), and Jubbada Hoose (Lower Juba) further down east. The southern parts of Gedo, west of the Jubba River, used to be part of the old British Trans-Juba region during half of the seventy years of colonial era in Africa from 1890 to 1960. The British and Italians fought twice over this area.[4]

The regional capital is Garbaharey. The Marehan (Darod) dominate economically, politically, and militarily, and rule across all districts. The Marehan in Gedo are split between the guri ('original inhabitants') and the galti ('new settlers').[5] Guri-Galti conflicts over power and resources are common, especially in Luuq, Belet Hawo, and Baardhere.

President Siad Barre's forces withdrew to Gedo following the collapse of the Somali Democratic Republic in the early 1990s.[6] After 1991, the Somali National Front (SNF) under Marehan Omar Haji Mohamed held large parts of the region for many years.[7] In collaboration with the SNF,[8] Gedo joined the growing trend of Islamic Courts at the start of the Somali Civil War and local sharia courts succeeded in making Luuq District one of Somalia's safest areas for much of the 1990s.[9] The militant religious group al-Itihaad al-Islamiya (AIAI) also rose to power in the region later, taking over the city of Luuq as its headquarters.[3] The Ethiopian National Defence Force then entered the area to attack AIAI's bases in 1996, and the Marehan clans split, either supporting or opposing the Ethiopian forces.[5] A peace conference to resolve the intra-Marehan disagreements was convened in 2004. The first democratically elected governor of the administrative region was Hussein Farey, who entered office in 2008.[10]

Districts

Gedo Region consists of seven districts:[11][12][13]

The Dawa and Jubba rivers are the two major rivers of the region.

Education

The city of Garbahaarreey and the region's two ancient cities of Luuq and Bardera had education systems up to the secondary level. There were some technical schools in Bardera and Garbaharreey, albeit without a curriculum. They are connected through the Gedo Education Committee. All of Gedo region's high school graduates attended the Somali National University or affiliated institutions in Mogadishu.[citation needed]

Since the civil war in Somalia, Gedo became one of half dozen regions which have restarted higher education institutions in the country. Bardera Polytechnic, Gedo's first college, and the University of Gedo, are both located in Bardera.

Demographics

According to a 1994 UNOSOM II estimate, the population of Gedo was about 590,000, the majority of the population being from the Marehan clan. Other estimates varied considerably; two reports by the United Nations Development Office for Somalia issued in the same year, 1995, gave very different estimates: 330,000 and about 1 million.[14]

The United Nations Development Programme estimated the total population in 2005 at 328,378;[11] and UN estimates from 2014 stand at some 508,000.[15]

Economy

The economy mostly depends on livestock and farming, but the Gedo region has strong interregional and international cross-border trade with Kenya and to some extent with Ethiopia. Trade across Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia allowed the Gedo region to be economically stable for the years before the UN intervention and afterward. The 1998 Nordic Fact Finding Mission prepared a report on the Gedo region and found some encouraging economic figures. Davidson College assistant professor Ken Menkhaus said that "Traders in Gedo region made more profit than, for instance, those in Hargeisa, in north-western Somalia."[16] Trade going through the border between the three countries was ongoing despite the raging civil war in Somalia for much of the 1990.

Government

Gedo region has a 32-member assembly body. The members are directly elected from the seven districts of the region with proportionality according to district population. The Gedo assembly or (Gollaha Gobalka Gedo) works with the federal government based in Mogadishu. Regional level posts include:[citation needed]

  • Governor
  • Vice Governor
  • Inter-Regional Affairs Director
  • Director of Security Services
  • Gedo Regional Police Commander
  • Director of Education Services
  • Director of Agricultural Agency
  • Director of Economic Affairs
  • Livestock and Forestry Dept. Director
  • Director of Justice and Religious Affairs

After long conflicts in the region, the regional elders started a peace conference with initiatives from the then governor, Aden Ibrahim Aw Hirsi.[citation needed] This effort ended in success. and were followed by the elections of the regional assembly. The process was financed by UNDP.[citation needed]

In addition to regional posts, the Federal Government of Somalia maintains military forces in the region. Brigade 9 of Division 60 (Somalia) was reported in the region as of 2016, originating from a U.S.-funded pilot programme that began in 2012.[17]

Cities and towns

Bardera and Beled Haawo cities are the two principal cities of the Gedo region. In the recent past, Luuq or Lugh used to be the main political city of the Gedo Region, but the Somali Civil War made many of the city's residents to flee to other towns.

Bardera, the largest city and the seat of the most populous district in Gedo, has become urbanized to the extent that its population multiplied 400% since the breakdown of law and order in the capital of the country, Mogadishu. Aside from the urban population in proper Bardera, the rest of the region's population are pastoralists with the exception of people living in the cities where the region's seven district seats are located. The town is home to Bardera Polytechnic as well as the University of Gedo which also has a campus at Beled Haawo.

Notes

  1. ^ "Somalia: Subdivision and cities". www.citypopulation.de. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  2. ^ "Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
  3. ^ a b c "Report of the Nordic fact-finding mission to the Gedo region in Somalia 15 October – 30 October 1998" (PDF). p. 7. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  4. ^ "Gudoomiyaha Gobolka Gedo Xuseen Sh. Cabdi 'Farey' oo nasiib daro ku tilmaamay sida uu sharciga u garab maray Raysalwasaare Saacid |". Archived from the original on 2019-04-06. [dead link]
  5. ^ a b CEWERU 2013, p.19
  6. ^ Dool, Abdullahi (1998). Failed States: When Governance Goes Wrong!. Horn Heritage Publications. pp. 106–107. ISBN 0952524198.
  7. ^ Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (1 December 1997). "Somalia: Information on the Somali National Front in Gedo and on Omar Haji Masalle including his clan and subclan".
  8. ^ Njoku, Raphael Chijioke (2013-02-20). The History of Somalia. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 142–143. ISBN 978-0-313-37858-4.
  9. ^ Elmi, Afyare Abdi (2010-08-15). Understanding the Somalia Conflagration: Identity, Islam and Peacebuilding. Pluto Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-7453-2974-1. Parallel with this first court in Mogadishu, Sheikh Mohamed Haji Yusuf and Sheikh Mohamud A. Nur established a new Islamic court in the Luq district of Gedo region in 1992. This court was more successful than the one attempted in Mogadishu. These scholars succeeded in creating a secure environment in the area, and for a while, from 1992 to 1997, Luq district was the safest area in Somalia.
  10. ^ "Somalia: Gedo Region Elects a New Governor". allAfrica. Garowe Online. Archived from the original on 2008-10-12.
  11. ^ a b Conflict Dynamics International/CEWERU, "From the Bottom Up: Southern Regions: Perspectives through Conflict Analysis and Key Political Actors' Mapping" Archived 2019-07-14 at the Wayback Machine, September 2013, p.16
  12. ^ "UNSOM 2 Planning and Information Unit Regional Report: Gedo Region" (PDF). Global Information Networks in Education (GINIE). February 1994. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-09-22. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
  13. ^ Districts of Somalia
  14. ^ "Report of the Nordic fact-finding mission to the Gedo region in Somalia 15 October – 30 October 1998" (PDF). p. 8. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  15. ^ "Somalia Population Statistics," accessed via https://data.humdata.org/dataset/somalia-population-data, March 2020.
  16. ^ Report of the Nordic fact-finding mission to the Gedo region in Somalia
  17. ^ Robinson, Colin D. (2019). "The Somali National Army: An Assessment [2016]". Defense & Security Analysis. 35 (2): 216. doi:10.1080/14751798.2019.1600805. S2CID 159442854.

References

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Gedo.
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