Jowhar

Jowhar (also Jawhar, Johar or Giohar written, former name Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi ) is a town in central Somalia with about 48,000 inhabitants. It lies on the River Shabeelle about 90 km north of the capital Mogadishu. Jowhar is the capital of Shabeellaha Dhexe region.

History

Jowhar was founded in 1920 in the then colony of Italian Somaliland by Luigi Amadeo of Savoy, Duke of the Abruzzi, as an agricultural settlement in the territory of Shidle. The place was first called after its founder Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi or Villabruzzi. 1926 the settlement consisted of 16 villages where 200 Italians and 3,000 Somalis lived. In 1928 the railway line Mogadishu Villabruzzi was built as the only railway line of Somalia. It was dismantled in 1941 during the Second World War by the British and brought parts of the rolling stock to Eritrea, where today a locomotive on the restored route Massawa - Asmara wrong. While at first cotton was the most important Anbaupodukt, it was later replaced due to falling world market prices for sugar cane. In addition, bananas were grown and exported to Italy.

In independent Somalia in Jowhar mid-1980s capital of Shabeellaha Dhexe region, when it was separated from the region of Benadir.

In the ongoing Somali civil war since 1991, the warlord Mohammed Omar Habeb Dheere had his power base in Jowhar. 2004, the city was taken, along with Baidoa, the provisional capital of the Somali transitional government, as was the actual capital Mogadishu under the control of various rival clan leaders and warlords and was too uncertain. A part of the interim parliament was based in Jowhar. In February 2006, however, left the transitional President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi, the city, and on 13 July of the same year Jowhar was occupied by the Union of Islamic Courts. On December 26, conquered troops of the transitional government and neighboring Ethiopia Jowhar again.

2007 target of Jowhar IDPs who fled to Mogadishu before fighting between pro-government forces and anti-government militias. In early 2008 took Islamists and other opponents of Ethiopia and the transitional government of the city several times for a short time. In April of the same year they took over permanently in control, started night patrols and took claims to bandits firmly. In May, an Islamic Court was set up in the city.

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