Garbahaarreey
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Garbahaarey is the capital of Gedo, the second largest and sixth most populous region (gobolka) of Somalia. Maj. General Mohamed Siyad Barre, Somalia's longest-serving president, claimed Garbahaarrey as his birthplace in order to get a job in the Italian colonial police force.[1] The president's body was buried in Garbahaarey following his death in Nigeria in 1995. The city is surrounded by the Gogol Mountain Range.
| Garbahaarreey | |
| Regions of Somalia | Gedo |
|---|---|
| Population (2008) | |
| - City | 28,600 |
| - Metro | 43,000 |
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[edit] Population
The population of Garbahaarreey City is estimated to be around 43,000 and most of the city’s inhabitants belong to various sub clans of the Marehan. There are high levels of transmigration between Garbahaarreey and surrounding towns and villages, such as Tuulo Barwaaqo, especially when there is a conflict or natural disasters which affect city. At the height of the civil war from 1991 to 1994, the population dispersed to many of the two dozen or so villages surrounding the city. Garbahaarreey is about 130km from the Kenyan border in the Northern Frontier District (NFD).
[edit] Commerce
Garbahaarreey’s population growth is at a slower pace compared to many other districts in Somalia, due to the size of the population and lack of agricultural activities. Since the breakout of the civil war in Somalia in early 1991, the city’s population has doubled. Many Garbahaarreey residents make second home in Beled Hawo. In Beled Hawo, many families take advantage of the open-border policy with Kenya for school children. Each weekday thousands of school children cross the border to attend school in Mandera Kenya. Likewise, business activities are much broader in Beled Hawo than in Garbahaarreey. Trucks full of goods to and from many parts of Somalia go through Beled Hawo-Mandera border everyday. Garbhaarreey has another business route from Bardera district. Mostly produce from the fertile Jubba River farms in Bardera and Buurdhuubo districts.
[edit] The Insecurity of The 1990’s
Much of the 1990s, the city of Garbahaarreey was the seat of NSF armed militia in the early days of the civil war. But then people lost interest in being in a war that only killed more young people. The city opted to lay low in the political scene. All activities shifted to Lugh and Beled Hawo. Now Garbahaarreey has a new role to play in the region. Neighboring regions such as NFD has welcomed the new leadership. A safe Gedo is also good for the neighboring regions in Kenya and Ethiopia. This is the new political reality in this age of insecurity in the Horn as a whole.
[edit] Governance
Since the founding of the city of Garbahaarreey, all the regional governors that occupied the governor’s office of the capital, Governor Mohamed Abdinur Iris was the most famous governor and most influential leader of Gedo Region in terms goals accomplished by a politician in Gedo. Governor Iris, (Gudoomiye) in Somali, implemented some of the most well-known public works projects. Expansion of the city's only hospital and improvements to the roads, which connect some of the region's district seats to the regional capital, were some of the realized goals set by a Gedo governor. And this is attributed to Governor Iris. With his experience outside of Gedo, governor Adam Ibrahim Aw Hirsi is even thought to be capable of doing much more than it has been done for a Somali-administrative region in the past.
[edit] The New Leadership of Gedo Region In The New Century
Somali regions are getting more and more disconnected from the country’s capital ever since the last central government was over thrown by armed tribal militias.
Unlike any other region in Somalia, Gedo Region has opted for a pragmatic, educated, forward-looking kind of new leadership. Hussein Sheikh Abdi Ismail, or (Hussien Farey) for short, was chosen as the new governor of Gedo back in 2004. Since February of 2007, Adam Ibrahim O'Hirsi was the governor of Gedo. With O’Hirsi’s leadership, Gedo Region is projected to leap ahead in terms of security, commerce, good governance and furthering all public services, which were missing for more than a decade and a half. Any tribe or tribal leader that emerges from a certain region develops a habit of pitting one sub clan against another. This has hindered many well-meaning efforts to reestablish Somalia as a nation again after it has lost its place in the world.
[edit] Future of Gedo Region Administration
Gedo Region’s political dynamics are fast changing since Ibrahim Aw Xirsi was named the governor of Gedo. The future of Gedo region is on the right direction. There are vast opportunities in uniting the minds and the efforts of all the service providers and businesses in Gedo region. Many Gedo residents remember mid 1990’s when Gedo was said be one of the most profitable place to do businesses in Somalia. Now that a new governor is at the helm of the region, many new peace building efforts and a new focus in the economy are on the table. The population of Garbahaarreey as well as people from other districts of Gedo, most of the former Gedo residents elsewhere in the world, are welcoming the new governor who is believed to be in a position to do more for the people of Gedo. The new governor, Adam Ibrahim Aw Xirsi and the leaders from the seven districts of the region are already having working relations and this is a new beacon of hope.
Two decades ago, one of Gudoomiye Iris's lasting legacies was the creation of boarding school on the outskirts of the city of Garbahaarreey. Iris was the governor of Gedo much of the 1980s. Many public works projects were in the pipeline when the civil war erupted in Somalia in early 1991. All previous governors, and those who came after governor Iris, have left for the city or for the region for that matter, little or no progress to show for.
Governor Mohamed Abdinur (Iris) made the most headway in creating substantial public works projects in Gedo region. His administration in the 1980s created a boarding school in the region's capital as well as the expansion of the Garbahaarreey-Buurdhuubo road.
Garbahaarreey in the last thirty years has seen close to dozen governors as compiled by Mohamud Dahir Dhaqane. These are the past and present governors who occupied the governor's office in Garbahaarreey. Past and present governors of Gedo are as follows:
- Cumar Maxamed Guuleed
- Maxamed Nuur Wardheere
- Cali Faarax Xayoow
- Maxamed Cali Xaashi
- Jaalle Axmed Mahdi
- Maxamed Cabdinuur (Iris)
- Cali Maxamed Aadan (Cali Xaashi)
- Axmed Sharmaarke
- Cumar Sh Maxamuud Sh Cabdullahi (Cumar Yare) 1994-1994
- Xuseen Sh Cabdi Ismaaciil (Fareey) 2004-2007
- Aadam Ibraahim Aw Xirsi 2007-
[edit] Notes
- ^ David D. Laitin and Said S. Samatar, Somalia: Nation in Search of a State (Boulder: Westview Press 1987), p. 79
