Hobyo (Obbia)

Where it is

Hobyo is a port town on the Indian Ocean in the Mudug region, part of Galmudug state, at about 5.35°N, 48.53°E (Wikipedia: Hobyo; Wikidata). Its Italian name was Obbia. It has a hot desert climate (Köppen BWh) (Climate-Data.org). The town has a sea port and is served by Obbia airstrip (Wikipedia: Hobyo).

Ajuran and the Hiraab Imamate

Sources describe Hobyo, with the Mareeg area, as a coastal outpost of the Ajuran state from the 1200s (Wikipedia: Hobyo). In the late 1600s the Hiraab rose against Ajuran rule and set up the Hiraab Imamate (Wikipedia: Hobyo). The historian Lee Cassanelli describes it as an alliance of related groups: army leaders and advisers from the Habar Gidir and Duduble, a judge from the Sheekhaal, and the imam from the Mudulood branch. It ruled lands from the Shabelle valley and the Benadir coast to Mudug (Cassanelli, The Shaping of Somali Society, quoted in Wikipedia).

Through Hobyo the Imamate exported livestock, hides and skins, aromatic woods and raisins, and imported rice, other food and cloth. Traders came for textiles, precious metals and pearls (Wikipedia: Hobyo).

The Sultanate of Hobyo

In 1884 Yusuf Ali Kenadid, of the Majeerteen, took Hobyo with Hadhrami musketeers and founded the Sultanate of Hobyo. He had earlier tried to take the Majeerteen Sultanate from his cousin Boqor Osman Mahamud and been forced into exile in Yemen (Wikipedia: Hobyo). Historians describe both sultanates as having a working administration, a state flag, a standing army and written records that still exist (Wikipedia: Hobyo).

In late 1888 Sultan Kenadid signed a treaty with Italy that made Hobyo an Italian protectorate; Boqor Osman signed a similar treaty the next year. Both rulers are described as signing to advance their own aims and to play the European powers against each other (Wikipedia: Hobyo). Relations broke down when Kenadid refused to let British troops land at Hobyo to fight the Dervishes, and Italy exiled him and his son Ali Yusuf to Aden and then Eritrea (Wikipedia: Hobyo).

See also the Majeerteen and Hobyo sultanates.

People

Wikipedia gives about 11,800 people in the town and 67,249 in Hobyo district (Wikipedia: Hobyo); Wikidata gives 12,564 (Wikidata). These figures go back to the 2005 UNDP estimates (UNDP 2005).

Piracy and the port

After about 2009, when Puntland forces drove pirate groups from Eyl and Garacad, the groups were reported to work mainly from Hobyo, El Danaan and Xarardheere (Wikipedia: Piracy off the coast of Somalia).

In August 2019 Qatar began a project to build a port at Hobyo under agreements signed with Somalia in December 2018 (Bloomberg, Aug 2019; Middle East Monitor, Aug 2019).

Sources

• Wikipedia: Hobyo
• Wikipedia: Piracy off the coast of Somalia
• Wikidata Q1016908
• Bloomberg, Qatar plans port at Hobyo, 2019
• Climate-Data.org: Hobyo