QANSAXDHEERE, SOMALIA – Fighters loyal to former President Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen took Qansaxdheere, a district town in the Bay region about 90 kilometres southwest of Baidoa, on Thursday 8 October, and local accounts said part of its garrison surrendered to them while the rest withdrew into a camp the Ethiopian army keeps in the district. Forces aligned with the federal government had held the town since the March campaign that removed Laftagareen from Baidoa, and it fell to the force President Aden Mohamed Nur Madobe’s South West administration declared a terrorist group in August. Neither Villa Somalia nor Baidoa had published any statement on Qansaxdheere by Monday 12 October. On the same Thursday Ethiopia told the UN Security Council that Eritrean troops had pushed sixty kilometres into its north, eight days after reports that Addis Ababa planned to pull more than 3,000 soldiers out of Somalia.
Thursday at Qansaxdheere
Hassan Abdiqadir Mohamed, the security official of the administration Laftagareen still claims to lead, announced in a written statement that the South West Darawish had taken full control of Qansaxdheere district and that its people had welcomed them warmly. The fighters entered after several days of operations on the town’s outskirts, and the first reports that evening said Qansaxdheere had changed hands without a gunfight, making it the first town to leave federal control entirely since federal forces moved on Baidoa in March. Local sources said some of the soldiers stationed in the town handed themselves over to the Darawish.
Others went into the camp the Ethiopian forces maintain in Qansaxdheere district. No account has said how many soldiers took either road, which unit they belonged to or whether they still carry their weapons, and no casualty figure has been published by either side. Furthermore, no independent account has described how the Darawish entered the town, and a minister of the cabinet attributed to Laftagareen was reported to be on his way to Qansaxdheere after it fell. The district’s residents live from farming, livestock and trade, and the town sits about 90 kilometres from the regional capital the Darawish have attacked three times since August.
On Saturday 10 October Ugaas Hassan Abdi Mohamed, the information minister in that cabinet, wrote that the return of Qansaxdheere district “to the lawful statehood of South West, led by President Laftagareen, is an example that we are restoring our sovereignty, our law and our state authority over our land.” He said the operation would continue and that its aim was to restore what he called the freedom of South West. His appointment dates from 18 September, when the camp announced a cabinet with no decree or signed roster behind it.
By Monday 12 October the defence ministry, which described the earlier Darawish attacks on Baidoa as al-Shabaab operations, had said nothing about the town, and the South West administration had published nothing about the soldiers who crossed over or about the ones inside the Ethiopian camp.
The Town Taken From Laftagareen in March
On Saturday 14 March heavy fighting broke out inside and around Qansaxdheere between forces calling themselves the Liberation of South West and troops of the administration then led by Laftagareen, and by the end of the day the opposition forces were reported to hold the town. Residents described heavy and light weapons fired for hours, with dead and wounded on both sides and no figure confirmed. Two days later forces aligned with the federal government held Qansaxdheere, while Villa Somalia was reported to be reaching Laftagareen through relatives travelling abroad with him in an effort to stop him holding an election of his own.
Federal forces entered Baidoa on 30 March, the day Laftagareen resigned as president of South West State, and the state assembly elected President Aden Mohamed Nur Madobe by 88 votes to one on 10 June. On 23 July the defence ministry announced that more than 150 fighters loyal to Laftagareen had surrendered in the Bay region, the region that includes Qansaxdheere, under a former Awdiinle district commissioner, Ibrahim Mohamed Nur Kalaay, handing over weapons and vehicles, and said talks were under way to bring in the rest. Moreover, the ministry said some of his units still held positions on the outskirts of Baidoa and had clashed with federal troops.
The Darawish entered Baidoa on 17 August and fought inside the city for about six hours on 3 September. On 30 August President Aden Mohamed Nur Madobe’s cabinet resolved that Laftagareen and his camp would be dealt with in the same manner as terrorist groups, accusing them of an alliance with al-Shabaab. On 10 September President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud ordered the army into the Bay region against the forces of the man his government had removed, and two days later the South West security minister told civilians to keep away from areas held by the Darawish or by al-Shabaab and announced airstrikes on them. Qansaxdheere, the district Mogadishu’s side took in the first fortnight of the March campaign, is the first one the Darawish have taken back.
A Ceasefire Refused and the 60th Division Struck
On Tuesday 22 September the South West Peace Council said a ceasefire around Baidoa was the most urgent question in its mediation, and the next day Laftagareen’s camp said no ceasefire had been agreed with anyone. On Saturday 26 September Laftagareen wrote to the United Nations and to foreign governments asking for an independent investigation into federal operations in the state, including alleged airstrikes by Cessna aircraft on villages around Baidoa, among them Hartiagle, Ceel Doon and Sagara Gali. Federal and South West forces were moving reinforcements into the city throughout that week.
On Sunday 27 September Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said Laftagareen was “resting in Nairobi” and had “left those young men as guests of al-Shabaab”, and he urged him to return to talks. He said the government had tried to restart negotiations through religious leaders and elders and that the effort had been turned down. At dawn the next day, ten days before Qansaxdheere fell, the Darawish struck the 60th Division inside Baidoa, the third assault on the city in six weeks, and the South West administration put the attackers’ dead at more than seventy and called them al-Shabaab. Bay Regional Hospital took in sixty-nine wounded and recorded three deaths.
About seventy Gorgor special forces soldiers were reported flown from Mogadishu to Baidoa after that attack, with trucks of heavy machine guns and ammunition, and on 30 September the administration barred movement in the city after sunset prayers. Fresh forces had already been reported on 9 September moving from elsewhere in the state to join the units on Baidoa’s outskirts. On Thursday 8 October the Darawish appeared at Qansaxdheere, 90 kilometres from the city, where the garrison split between surrender and the Ethiopian camp. No federal operation to retake Qansaxdheere had been announced by Monday 12 October, and no federal or South West official had named the units that were in the town on Thursday.
The Ethiopian Camp in Qansaxdheere District
Ethiopian troops have served in Bay, Bakool, Gedo and Hiiraan for years, some under the African Union mission and others under bilateral arrangements with Mogadishu. In August the Ethiopian army handed its base at Buurhakaba, on the road between Mogadishu and Baidoa, to the 60th Division after holding it since 2014. On Wednesday 30 September people familiar with Ethiopian plans said more than 3,000 soldiers would be pulled out of Somalia to fight at home, and a Somali defence ministry official said Mogadishu had not been told. Ethiopia had withdrawn about 3,000 soldiers from Somalia once before, in November 2020, within days of the first Tigray war breaking out. Neither government has said which camps the departing soldiers would leave or whether the one in Qansaxdheere district is among them.
On Thursday 8 October, the day Qansaxdheere changed hands, Ethiopia’s foreign minister, Gedion Timothewos, wrote to the Security Council that Eritrean forces with armoured vehicles had advanced sixty kilometres into northern Ethiopia, calling it an act of aggression that left his country no choice but to defend itself. Eritrea has denied backing the armed groups Ethiopia is fighting in its north. Furthermore, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government had already been fighting a rebellion in Tigray, Afar and Amhara since the fighting intensified on 23 September, and the ENDF has accused Eritrea, Egypt and Sudan of arming it.
In Doolow, on the Gedo border, the district commissioner told his forces on 7 October that the district would follow the policy of the Ethiopian forces until a capable Somali government took charge. A day later, 90 kilometres from Baidoa, soldiers who would not hand themselves to the Darawish went into the camp of the same Ethiopian army, whose government told the Security Council that same Thursday that Eritrean forces had crossed into its north. The federal government and President Aden Mohamed Nur Madobe’s administration, on whose side those soldiers had held Qansaxdheere, had said nothing about them by Monday 12 October.
