Dhoobley (Dhobley)

Where it is

Dhoobley lies in Lower Juba, part of Jubaland, right on the Kenyan border, about 15 km north-east of the Kenyan town of Liboi (Wikipedia: Dhobley), at about 0.41°N, 41.01°E (Wikidata). It was once called Liboi-Somalia. Its position on the border has made it, by Wikipedia's account, the second-largest town in Jubaland after Kismaayo (Wikipedia: Dhobley).

Founding and refugees

Herders settled the place between 1971 and 1974 to raise their animals (Wikipedia: Dhobley). After the central government fell in 1991, many people passed through Dhoobley on their way to the refugee camp then at Liboi in Kenya, and in 1993 it became an official settlement for displaced families (Wikipedia: Dhobley). In early 2007 Kenya largely closed the border, and thousands of people turned back stayed in Dhoobley as displaced people (Wikipedia: Dhobley). See refugee camps.

Fighting and foreign forces

• 3 March 2008: a US naval missile strike hit Dhoobley, aimed at Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, whom the US held responsible for the 1998 embassy bombings in Nairobi. At least four people were killed and 20 hurt (New York Times, March 2008).
• 3 April 2011: forces of the Transitional Federal Government and the Raskamboni Movement took the town from al-Shabaab, shelling it; ten fighters were reported killed (Hiiraan Online, April 2011).
• October 2011: the Kenyan army took control of Dhoobley in Operation Linda Nchi, launched after a series of kidnappings, including of foreign aid workers (BBC News, Oct 2011).
• March 2012: Kenyan forces joined the African Union mission, AMISOM (Hiiraan Online, March 2012). Since then the town has been held by the Somali government with foreign forces (Wikipedia: Dhobley).
• March 2020: the Somali National Army and the Kenya Defence Forces opened the Dhobley Forward Operating Base north of the town (Garowe Online).
• May 2024: Kenyan army engineers finished a tarmac road from Dhoobley to Afmadow under the African Union mission, and in 2025 they rebuilt the airstrip (Streamline Feed, 2025; Wikipedia: Dhobley).

WardheerNews has described the town picking up the pieces after years of violence (WardheerNews).

Work, water and schools

The town lives from the livestock trade, cross-border trade including money changing, the airport, and transport fees between the two countries (Wikipedia: Dhobley). It has about eight boreholes, and in droughts herders from surrounding districts and from North Eastern Kenya bring their animals to water there (Wikipedia: Dhobley). There are eight schools, three of them secondary (Wikipedia: Dhobley).

Neighbourhoods include Diif Somali, Tuulo Barwaaqo, Deg-ilima, Tabto, Sukaylaa, Daku, Kulmis, Wadajir, Durdur, Basro, Daar Daar, Dhagax and Laanta Shabaax (Wikipedia: Dhobley).

Sources

• Wikipedia: Dhobley (Lower Juba Region)
• Wikidata Q1207668
• New York Times, US strike in Somalia, March 2008
• BBC News, Kenya troops in Somalia, Oct 2011
• Hiiraan Online, Operation Linda Nchi ends, March 2012