Gedo

Gedo borders both Ethiopia and Kenya, the tri-border position creating cross-boundary dynamics that national governments struggle to control. The region's location within Jubaland federal member state places it at the center of federal-state tensions that December 2024 clashes between Mogadishu and Jubaland demonstrated—the governance disputes that Al-Shabaab exploits.

Pastoral livelihoods predominate in a region where borders mean less than clan territories and trade routes that predate nation-states. The livestock that provides 40% of Somalia's GDP and over 50% of exports depends on pastoral mobility that arbitrary boundaries complicate and conflict zones threaten.

Ethiopian and Kenyan security interests in preventing Al-Shabaab's expansion create cross-border military dynamics that Gedo communities experience regardless of their preferences. Whether regional stabilization can emerge from external intervention—or whether Gedo remains contested space where multiple states' interests collide—depends on factors beyond any local control.