Phone lines and power cables went down first. When fighting ended in Beled Hawo in late July 2025, the Somali Guardian reported, restoring telecommunications and electricity was what let residents go back to sending mobile money and calling relatives. In a border town where commerce runs on those services, the federal army’s capture of the place carried an economic weight as well as a military one.
Garowe Online said government forces took Beled Hawo on Wednesday after several days of fighting with regional troops loyal to Jubaland, citing local officials and residents. The clashes started over the weekend and grew into heavy gun battles. No casualty count was confirmed. The Somali Guardian described a six-day fight that left dozens of civilians and combatants dead or wounded and sent thousands of people over the border into Kenya’s Mandera County.
Who led the push
The assault was commanded by Abdirashid Janan, the NISA regional commander. He is a former Jubaland security minister whom human rights groups have accused of abuses, a charge Garowe Online says he has denied. According to the Somali Guardian, his troops captured the police station and the district headquarters. Janan arrived by helicopter at a base outside the town, with a second helicopter reportedly carrying weapons and senior officials.
In a video address he confirmed that the army held the town and offered condolences for “the loss of life and destruction.” He blamed Jubaland’s authorities and urged displaced residents to come back, promising that “security and public services would be restored.”
A fight over Gedo
Beled Hawo sits in Gedo, a region where Mogadishu and Jubaland have clashed for years. Fighting had earlier been reported in Raskamboni and El-Wak before it spread to Balad Hawo and Dolow. Federal troops carried out the attacks in most of those cases, Garowe Online noted, and people died.
The dispute runs through politics. Ahmed Islam Mohamed Madobe won re-election as Jubaland’s leader for a third consecutive term, and the federal government called the vote unconstitutional and illegitimate. Madobe, one of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s most prominent critics, has also not agreed to proposed constitutional changes that could lead to direct elections. Garowe Online reported that Mogadishu wants to begin voter registration in Gedo, which is a Madobe stronghold. Madobe and Puntland’s Said Abdullahi Deni accuse the president of trying to replace the parliamentary system with a presidential one and to dismantle the federal structure.
Control across the region was split. Bardhere, Garbaharey and Burdhubo were administered by pro-government troops, while Dolow and El-Wak stayed under Jubaland. Luq was contested.
Earlier in the same week, Ethiopian troops attacked a NISA base in Dolow that supported Jubaland forces, the Somali Guardian said, destroying a weapons depot and capturing intelligence commanders and soldiers.
A week before the capture, Garowe Online had reported clashes in the Beled Hawo township that killed at least 10 people. Federal troops had been sent to Ras Kamboni and El-Wak after the Jubaland election dispute, and the paper noted that government forces had suffered a major defeat at Raaskambooni in December 2024.
Sources
- Federal Forces Seize Beled-Hawo From Jubaland, Escalating Somalia's Internal Power Struggle (Garowe Online)
- Somalia's army retakes Balad Hawo town after days of clashes with Jubaland forces (Somali Guardian)
- Fighting Between Somali Federal Troops and Jubaland Forces Kills at Least 10 Near Kenya Border (Garowe Online)
