Last modified: 2015-02-01 by bruce berry
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image by Zoltan Horvath, 11 March 2014
Following the signing of the Jubba Agreement between officials of the South
Western State of Somalia, Jubaland and the federal Somali government whereby it
was agreed that an autonomous state could be established under the Provisional
Federal Constitution, delegates representing the Bay, Bakool and Lower
Shabelle regions met in the capital Baidoa on 27 March 2014 and elected Mohamed
Haji Abdinur as president of the Southwestern State of Somalia.
Bruce Berry, 16 March 2014
The Somali Gazette reports
that South Western State of Somalia has been proclaimed again and the flag has
changed. The new flag comprises three equal horizontal
stripes. The top stripe is UN blue with a white 5 pointed star in the
centre. The middle stripe is plain red followed by a green stripe at the bottom
containing 6 white five pointed stars arranged in a circle.
Lee Herold, 11 March 2014
image
by Jaume Ollé, 27 October 2014
There is also a vertical variant.
Jaume Ollé, 27 October 2014
Image
by Jaume Ollé, 07 Sept 2014
The first flag of South West Somalia
comprised three equal
horizontal stripes of light blue, red and green. In the canton are six
white five-pointed stars in a circle. The colours seem to based on
those of the Rahanweyn Resistence Army, but which are arranged diagonally and with a single
star in canton.
Jaume Ollé, 07 Sept 2014
A new Somali state has been declared this Sunday, newspapers reported. It will be called "South-West Somalia" and the capital is Baidoa.
It hasn't been clarified yet if this is an independent state like Somaliland
or just autonomous one, like Puntland.
J.J.Andersson, 31 Mar 2002
More info on the State of Southwest Somalia:
"SOMALIA: RRA sets up autonomous region
NAIROBI, 01 April (IRIN) - The Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), which
controls the Bay and Bakol regions, southwestern Somalia, has set up a
new regional administration, an RRA senior official told IRIN on Monday.
The new autonomous region would be known as the State of Southwestern
Somalia, Muhammad Ali Adan Qalinle, the governor of Baidoa, said.
This is the third regional administration to be set up in Somalia, following the establishment of Somaliland (northwestern Somalia) and Puntland (in the northeast).
The decision was reached at a meeting of the RRA central committee and over 70 elders from the Digil and Mirifle clans. The meeting, which had been in session in Baidoa, the capital of Bay Region, 240 km southwest of Mogadishu, since 22 March, elected Colonel Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud, the chairman of the RRA, as president on Sunday. "He was inaugurated in Baidoa today, and will serve an initial four year term," Qalinle told IRIN on Monday. Baidoa will be the capital of the new state.
Shatigadud was a colonel in the notorious secret police, the National Security Service (NSS) of the former dictator Muhammad Siyad Barre, Somali sources told IRIN on Monday. A member of the Harin sub-clan of the main Rahanweyn clan, he set up the RRA in 1995 to resist the occupation of the area by the late faction leader, General Muhammad Farah Aydid, whose forces invaded the Bay and Bakol regions the same year.
Shatigadud had no opponents and was elected "by acclamation" by the meeting. He will be assisted by two vice-presidents, and will appoint 19 cabinet ministers and 19 deputy ministers, said Qalinle. Qalinle said that the new president would name his cabinet before the reconciliation talks due to be convened in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, this month.
The move to establish the autonomous region now is seen by Somali observers as a way for the RRA "to come to the talks as an established administration as opposed to a faction". It may also sound the death knell of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) said one observer. The SRRC is grouping of southern factions opposed to the Transitional National Government.
"The RRA controls the base from which the SRRC operates, and many of its members are factions in name only, controlling little or no territory," he said. Qalinle, however, dismissed this suggestion, saying: "Yes, we will go to Nairobi as the autonomous Southwestern State of Somalia, but we will still be under the SRRC umbrella." He added that the SRRC would be represented in the cabinet of the new regional administration.
The move to set up the administration was very popular with ordinary
people, who had long agitated for the RRA to transform itself into a functioning
administration, a local source in Baidoa told IRIN. However, according
to this source, the idea that the new president might appoint some members
of the SRRC to his cabinet was not being well received. "Any attempt to
bring non-Digil and Mirifle SRRC members into the administration will not
be popular and will probably stir up divisions," he said.
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
2002"
Factions Declare Somalia Government Mon Apr 1,10:42 AM ET By OSMAN HASSAN,
Associated Press Writer MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -
An Ethiopian-backed coalition of militia leaders on Monday established
a fourth breakaway, regional government in Somalia, rejecting the transitional
central government in the capital, Mogadishu. The formation of the Southwestern
Regional Government further marks the disintegration of Somalia, where
breakaway regional governments have already been established in the northern
Somaliland and Puntland regions. The Somali Reconciliation and Restoration
Council declared the formation of the new regional government, based in
Baidoa, as an alternative to the 18-month old Transitional National Government
in Mogadishu. The council is made up of leaders left out of the peace conference
that established the transitional government, including the Baidoa-based
Rahanwein Resistance Army. The Rahanwein army's leader Col. Hassan Mohamed
Nur Shargudud was declared the regional government's president on Monday. Somalia
has been without a strong central government since the fall of dictator
Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, when feuding faction leaders turned against
each other, creating chaos in Somalia Business and clan leaders called
a conference in neighboring Djibouti in August 2000 to form a new central
government, but so far the new president has been unable to assert itself
outside of the capital. Ethiopian officials have also accused the transitional
government of having ties to Islamic fundamentalists and have backed the
armed faction leaders who make up the reconciliation council and the new
southwestern government.
Source: this
website.
Mikhail Revnivtsev, 10 Apr 2002
A flag of Maayland / Southern Somali Union is shown at
http://maayland.com/ which is a similar
design we shown above.
Olivier Touzeau, 02 Aug 2008