Hiiraan Autonomous Region declared

Hasan Abdulle Qalad, governor of the Hiiraan Region, south-central Somalia, announced on 20 December in Beled Weyne, that an autonomous regional government had been set up in Hiiraan. Qalad, a former army colonel, made the announcement in a press statement to Mogadishu newspapers and international agencies, ‘Qaran’, a Mogadishu daily, reported on 23 December. The autonomous government would exist along similar lines as the self-declared Republic of Somaliland (northwestern Somalia), and the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, in northeastern Somalia, said Qalad. A source in Beled Weyne confirmed to IRIN that Qalad had made the announcement, but said control of territory was an issue. The governor, who is from the Hawadle sub-clan of the Hawiye, “doesn’t control Beled Weyne, much less the entire region”, according to the source. “He cannot even cross to the western side,” the source added Beled Weyne, the capital of the region, is divided by sub-clans into eastern and western territories, marked by a bridge. The east is the Hawadle area and the west is Galje’l territory. There has been intermittent fighting between the two Hawiye sub-clans, which dominate the region. A Hawadle businessman in Beled Weyne told IRIN that support for Qalad was divided, even within his own sub-clan. According to the source, a welcome had been prepared for Ali Mahmud Arale, the deputy minister of information of the new interim government established recently in Mogadishu. Arale has been in Beled Weyne for the past two weeks. According to this source, Qalad was present at a lunch for the deputy minister, who belongs to the same sub-clan as the former. Qalad left for Ferfer, on the Ethiopian border on 27 December, local sources said.