MOGADISHU — Jubbaland’s Darwish forces launched a sweeping security operation Saturday in the town of Qooqaani in Somalia’s Lower Jubba region, targeting areas used by Al-Shabab and working to secure key routes linking the town to surrounding districts, regional officials said.
Security chief Mahmoud Adan Hassan Gaaboow, who directed the mission, said troops searched access roads and nearby settlements that have served as transit points for the militant group. The operation is intended to curb ambushes and roadside attacks and to improve civilian safety on arteries vital for daily travel and trade.
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“Our goal is to reinforce security and protect residents moving through these routes, especially in places where the militants have hidden and staged attacks,” Gaaboow said.
Jubbaland authorities cast the sweep as part of a broader campaign to disrupt Al-Shabab’s mobility and weaken its operational networks in southern Somalia. Despite sustained military pressure in recent months, the group continues to exert influence across several rural areas of Lower and Middle Jubba, leveraging remote terrain and secondary tracks to evade patrols and move fighters and supplies.
Officials said the strategy centers on increased patrols and targeted raids designed to block the movement of personnel and materiel, reduce the group’s access to communities and reclaim contested territory. Securing the roads around Qooqaani — a rural hub that connects to larger district centers — is viewed as essential to restoring the free flow of goods and services and to reducing the group’s ability to stage hit-and-run attacks.
The focus on mobility highlights a persistent feature of the conflict in southern Somalia: control of roads and riverine corridors often dictates leverage on the ground. By targeting staging points and informal waystations around Qooqaani, Jubbaland’s forces aim to shrink Al-Shabab’s operating space and limit contact with the civilian population the group seeks to influence.
The regional administration did not provide a timeline for the operation but framed it as a continuation of ongoing efforts to harden security around Lower Jubba population centers. Authorities said operations would concentrate on transit nodes where militants have previously used concealment and terrain to slip through checkpoints.
In addition to reducing the threat to travelers, securing the main routes is intended to support local commerce and humanitarian access. Roads in Lower Jubba serve as lifelines for markets and aid deliveries; when they are unsafe, communities face price spikes, shortages and isolation that can erode support for regional governance.
The sweep in Qooqaani underscores the steady, attritional nature of counterinsurgency in the south: repeated pressure on movement, sanctuary and supply lines. Jubbaland officials said they will continue to combine patrols with pinpoint raids as they seek to degrade Al-Shabab networks and reduce the risk of attacks on civilians and security personnel across the region.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
