Ethiopia’s Somali and Afar leaders hold iftar to end territorial dispute
Source: Hiiraan Online, Thursday March 13, 2025
Somali and Afar regional leaders, accompanied by religious figures, walk together in a show of unity during a reconciliation event in Jigjiga. Mogadishu (HOL) — Ethiopian authorities from the Somali and Afar regions have launched a new reconciliation push to end one of the country’s most protracted and violent territorial disputes.
Leaders from both regions, whose armed forces have repeatedly clashed over contested land, gathered for a communal iftar—an attempt at diplomacy amid a conflict that has killed hundreds, displaced thousands, and turned stretches of Ethiopia’s Sitti Zone into a no-man’s land.
For the first time in months, 65 Afar officials travelled to Jigjiga to share a Ramadan meal with their Somali counterparts, while Somali leaders are set to attend a similar event in the Afar region. The hope is that a shared table can do what ceasefire agreements and federal interventions have repeatedly failed to accomplish: end the war over the border.
“In past years, Ramadan has often seen an increase in violence, but this time, we are using it to bring people together,” Abdiqadir Rashid Duale, security chief for the Somali regional government, told the BBC Somali Service.
The next step, he added, is facilitating the return of displaced residents, after which land ownership disputes and other legal claims will be addressed through formal mechanisms.
For decades, the Somali Issa clan and Afar communities have fought over land along their jagged border. The three contested kebeles—Adaytu, Undufo, and Gedamaytu—are home to ethnic Somalis who insist they belong to the Somali region, while Afar authorities claim the land as their own.
The disputed areas sit on a lifeline of trade and survival—a corridor linking Addis Ababa to Djibouti, Ethiopia’s main export route. The Awash River runs through it and is essential for both Somali pastoralists and Afar herders. Whoever controls the land controls the water, the roads, and the economy.
Despite multiple peace efforts, violent clashes have continued.
In April 2024, the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council brokered a ceasefire. By June, fighting had resumed—heavy clashes in the Sitti Zone and Afar’s Yangudi district left scores dead. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission pleaded for calm, warning that the tit-for-tat violence was spiralling out of control.
The attacks prompted Somali Regional President Mustafa Mohammed Omar Agjar to travel to Sitti Zone in mid-August, where he visited victims of the clashes in Undufo and Danlahelay, surveying the devastation firsthand.By September 2024, the federal government stepped in again. Deputy Prime Minister Temesgen Tiruneh’s National Committee declared a “cessation of hostilities,” deployed troops, and took control of conflict zones. For now, the guns are quiet.
The Somali-Afar conflict is deepened by Ethiopia’s ethnic federalism, a system that gave both regions autonomy—but also deepened competition over borders.
In 2014, the federal government struck a deal: the contested towns would be part of the Afar region but granted special status for Somali residents. The Somali leadership withdrew the agreement in 2019, saying it was unconstitutional. The result? A political vacuum filled with bullets.
In April 2023, the Ethiopian government tried another approach—disbanding regional special forces and integrating them into national security forces. The move was meant to curb the influence of ethnic militias, but in actuality, it left both regions to rely on informal fighters, tribal elders, and armed civilian groups.
While local officials hail the recent iftar diplomacy as a step toward reconciliation, analysts warn that peace in the Somali-Afar borderlands will require more than symbolic gestures. Economic investment in the disputed territories is essential to stabilize communities and reduce reliance on resources that have fueled tensions for decades. A formal arbitration process must follow, resolving land ownership disputes through legal mechanisms rather than sporadic ceasefires that collapse under renewed violence.