Eight families from Somalia have fled violence in the Gedo district and crossed the border to Mandera County in Kenya where they sought refuge.
Those displaced people received emergency support from the Kenya Red Cross, Interior Ministry, and local county officials besides the Kenyan authorities who acted promptly to provide the necessary assistance.
Nonetheless, the impact of the conflict reached not only the displaced but also the residents of Kenya who were in the line of drift gunfire from the fighting causing a security scare.
Subsequently, officials sealed the border while being worried simultaneously about more refugees crossing as the crisis was deepening.
The effects of the border closure and continued hostilities have deteriorated the commerce route between Mandera and Bula Hawa leading to a severe shortage of goods on the vital trade route for basic commodities imported from Somalia via Kismayu port free of tax.
The shortage of products and the drastic drop in the traders’ earnings due to the absence of cross-border traffic have been reported by Local traders.
Wholesalers and transport operators accompanied by delivery disruptions led to a decrease in stock levels directly related to the Gedo unrest, and this is drawn upon to demonstrate the economic interdependence between border communities.
Due to this, the dispute has now escalated tensions between the Somali federal government and the semi-autonomous Jubbaland administration.
The Madobe forces, Incidents of violence were aggravated due to their stigmatization by the Federal authorities, who were among the first to accuse them of mortar launches at the local people and of the national army positions in Balad-Hawo assault, while at the same time they put the blame for civilian deaths on them.
The officials of the Jubbaland administration, instead, charged the federal forces with such acts being done to victims in a well-planned eviction campaign in order to harass them further.
Regional elders among others opposed the decisions taken by Mogadishu lately, especially the canceling of the flight ban at Doolow, and declared that those measures not only heightened the tension but also spread the destabilization of the region.
The trouble has undermined the semi-independent regions that still exist in Somalia with security problems, have become a nightmare for humanitarian operations and trade networks in the region, and have suspended cross-border commerce which, in particular, affects the people of Mandera County who were traditionally dependent on the informal trade relationship with Somalia.
The refugee influx has not only made it necessary for more humanitarian assistance, but it also made it more difficult.
