DOOLOW, SOMALIA – Mohamed Hussein Abdi Lafeey, the district commissioner of Doolow, told the town’s security forces and Jubaland’s Darawish troops on Wednesday 7 October that his administration would work under the policy of the Ethiopian forces stationed on the border until a capable Somali government takes charge of the whole country. He also ordered his men to respect soldiers he said had been in Somalia for more than thirty years. Lafeey has served the Jubaland administration of President Ahmed Madobe through two years of federal attempts to take Doolow, and he spoke a week after reports that Addis Ababa plans to pull more than 3,000 Ethiopian forces out of Somalia without telling Mogadishu. By Wednesday afternoon no federal, Jubaland or Ethiopian statement had answered him.
Lafeey’s Pledge to the Ethiopian Forces in Doolow
Lafeey spoke during an inspection at the headquarters of the Doolow security forces command, where the district security commander, Mohamed Hassan Buulle “Sanka”, briefed him on operations against al-Shabaab and on the units’ readiness. In the video of his remarks, he first set out what he called the district’s position. “Until a capable Somali government is found that takes over everywhere, we will not sit waiting on anyone for our interests and what we live on; we will look ourselves at what is good for the people, and I will not work with any policy that Ethiopia is not satisfied with,” Lafeey said.
He then turned to the Ethiopian forces quartered alongside his own men. “The two forces live together. We want those forces respected and shown brotherhood, because they have been in the country for more than 30 years, and what they are among us for is stability and security,” Lafeey said. The written report of the inspection went further than the recording, headlining that the Doolow administration would work by Ethiopia’s orders and stating that it would refuse anything the Ethiopian forces did not approve. His recorded words speak of policy, and the word “orders” comes from the report.
Moreover, a second account of the same visit has Lafeey telling residents that he belongs to the Jubaland administration and will keep implementing its policies. In that account he also said he would take no side in the quarrels of the region and asked the people of Doolow to protect their unity. A third account of the inspection carried nothing on Ethiopia and recorded only his praise for the forces and his call for closer coordination against al-Shabaab. By Wednesday afternoon, the government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Jubaland’s leadership in Kismayo had published nothing on the remarks. Addis Ababa had also said nothing, and no Ethiopian commander in Doolow had said what policy the commissioner was promising to follow, so the only text on the record is his own.
A Commissioner Who Has Held Doolow for Jubaland
In June 2025 Lafeey accused the federal government of destabilising the border district where Ethiopian forces set up a base in 2020, saying “Doolow has enjoyed years of relative peace, but the federal government’s interference is now creating serious security threats.” He said federal dismissals of local security officials had pushed those officials into Jubaland’s ranks. He also warned that attempts to separate Gedo from Jubaland would only inflame the conflict, and called the federal campaign at Ras Kamboni the largest troop surrender in Somali history. At the time Doolow sheltered more than 20,000 displaced people and hosted the United Nations agencies working in Gedo.
In October 2025 elders of the Reer Ahmed in Doolow met Lafeey and agreed that forces under Abdirashid Janan, then Mogadishu’s intelligence chief in Gedo, would take over security in the town and at its airstrip. The same deal kept Lafeey in office, ruled out political or military reprisals and returned federal weapons and vehicles to the government. The deal came a week after senior officers of the Ethiopian forces were reported in Doolow opposing a federal plan for Gedo. Somali-language reporting at the time treated it as a federal gain and a blow to President Ahmed Madobe. Yet on 26 December 2025 Lafeey closed a commando course for Jubaland Darawish in Doolow and told the graduates to safeguard Jubaland’s statehood. On 29 August 2026 he presented another class of Jubaland Darawish who had completed command-level training in the town.
Overnight into Friday 4 September the aircraft that struck the Doolow compound of General Mahad Abdirahman Aden also hit the house of the district commissioner and a residence used by state officials. Ethiopian forces in the town secured the wrecked property afterwards, and the general stayed under their protection through the following morning. On Saturday 5 September the district commissioner addressed protesters in Doolow who burned Turkish and Egyptian flags, saying the attack had been carried out “by Turkey and mercenaries” and calling it a political assassination. Mogadishu has since said the blast came from inside the house, and no government has claimed an air strike.
Ethiopian Forces Have Arbitrated Gedo Before
Hundreds of Ethiopian troops crossed into Doolow in March 2020 and set up a base there, while the government of former President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and Jubaland fought over Beled Hawo. On Monday 23 December 2024 fighting between federal troops and Jubaland forces in Doolow ended with Jubaland in control of the town, and the federal foreign ministry accused Ethiopian forces of an “unprovoked and unexpected attack” on army positions. Jubaland’s vice president, Mohamud Sayid Aden, blamed Mogadishu for the fighting and warned that “pursuing this path will only lead to Somalia’s downfall”. Addis Ababa denied the federal accusation the next day, blamed elements intent on destabilising the Horn of Africa and promised to keep working with the relevant federal agencies to prevent similar incidents.
Two weeks later, in January 2025, Mohamud Sayid Aden was reported to be assembling 400 to 500 soldiers in Doolow equipped by Ethiopia. That report listed Doolow under Jubaland’s administration while Garbahaarey, Beled Hawo, Bardhere and Burdhubo were under federal control. On Monday 28 July 2025 Ethiopian troops and forces loyal to the district commissioner surrounded the NISA base in Doolow and detained its commander, Saleban Gayre, in a clash that killed two people; he was freed after Mogadishu called Ethiopian officials. On Tuesday 5 August 2025 the federal-aligned Gedo governor, Abdullahi Shimbir, said Ethiopian forces in Doolow had summoned elders and given federal troops and Abdirashid Janan three days to leave the UK camp at Beled Hawo. “Beled-Hawo is not part of Ethiopia,” Shimbir said, and Ethiopian reinforcements reached Doolow within days, in deployments local reporting described as operating outside the African Union mission.
Furthermore, on 12 October 2025 senior Ethiopian military and intelligence officials were reported to have travelled to Doolow to tell local leaders that Ethiopia rejected Mogadishu’s plan for a parallel Jubaland administration in Gedo. Within days a federal aircraft carrying army and NISA officers failed to land at the Doolow airstrip, and a delegation including the commander of the land forces crossed to the Ethiopian side of the border to meet Ethiopian commanders on Gedo’s security. By April 2026, Ethiopian officials had rejected repeated federal requests to accept Janan as Gedo’s top authority, and a federal air blockade on Doolow had lasted about eighteen months.
Ethiopian Forces on the Way Out and a Federal Force Reported on the Road
Ethiopia is preparing to pull more than 3,000 soldiers out of Somalia to fight armed rebellion at home, a plan that surfaced on Wednesday 30 September and that a Somali defence ministry official said Mogadishu had not been told about. The reports did not say whether the departing troops serve under the African Union mission or under the bilateral arrangement, and they named no towns. On Monday 5 October Abiy Ahmed took the oath for a new five-year term as prime minister while Ethiopia closed its embassy in Eritrea, accusing Asmara of backing armed groups against his government.
The day before, Sunday 4 October, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud signed the Alamein declaration with Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan, after he had offered Abiy Ahmed access to Somali ports on the eve of the summit. Ethiopia’s foreign ministry answered the declaration on 5 October, warning that “actions taken through proxies or acts of aggression will not change the facts on the ground”.
On Friday 18 September Abdirashid Janan, by then Jubaland’s security chief, ordered his forces to prepare a move toward Doolow, where federal troops were reported stationed under an agreement with the district administration. On Monday 5 October the Beled Hawo commissioner said a force taking orders from federal officers had set out from Luuq and Doolow toward his town. Meanwhile, the report of Lafeey’s inspection closed by noting renewed tension across Gedo districts where federal troops and Jubaland Darawish are both present.
Doolow now holds a Jubaland commissioner, Jubaland Darawish he has trained, federal troops reported in the town, a house damaged by an air strike no government has claimed and the Ethiopian forces that stepped into the contests of December 2024 and August 2025. On 7 October its commissioner put the district’s policy in the hands of the one army none of the Somali parties commands, seven days after that army’s government was reported to be preparing a withdrawal it had not told Mogadishu about.
