The signatories of the Jubbaland state-building project facilitated by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development have converged on the port city of Kismayo, in Somalia’s Lower Jubba province, to formalize and complete the process that will usher in the country’s youngest federal entity.

The new state of Jubbaland will encompass the provinces of Lower Jubba, Middle Jubba, and Gedo, with its capital in the Middle Jubba town of Buale. If it succeeds in reconciling and securing all of those provinces, Jubbaland will be the second officially recognized federal state in Somalia. Currently, only Puntland is designated as a state according to the federal constitution since it is the only administration that meets the minimum two-province requirement for statehood.

The signatories of the original agreement in Nairobi this past July, known as the Jubbaland Conference, are all present in Kismayo today. They are Mohamed Abdi Gandhi, Abdirazak Fartag, Mohamed Darwish, Ahmed Madobe, and Mohamud Aw-Libah.

Three airplanes carrying delegates were reported by Kismayo residents to have landed at the nearby airport yesterday. Since the July agreement, other stakeholders have been invited to partake in the new Jubbaland civil administration. The original five signatories will be joined in Kismayo today by Abdirazak Hared, Abdikani Jama Abdulle, Abdirashid Urri, Abdiaziz Madahey, Mukhtar Mohamed Sahal, Abdiwahid Ahmed Yare, Mohamed Dagahtur, Ahmed Abdulkadir, and Abubakar Osman Ali.

The Jubbaland Conference signatories will lead an IGAD delegation to Mogadishu where they will meet with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon. It is expected that the new Jubbaland administration will be finalized within three days, and that the government will announce a new Somali federal state.

DissidentNation.com