# Jubba River (Webiga Jubba)

> The Jubba River (Webiga Jubba): southern Somalia's main river, from Dolow on the Ethiopian border to the sea near Kismaayo.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/regions/jubba-river/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Course

The Jubba begins at the Ethiopia–Somalia border, where the Dawa and the Ganale Dorya rivers join, and runs south to the Indian Ocean, which it reaches at Goobweyn near Kismaayo ([Wikipedia: Jubba River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubba_River)). Towns along its course include Dolow, [Luuq](/en/regions/gedo/), Burdhubo, Beled Hawo, [Baardheere](/en/regions/baardheere/), Bu'aale and Goobweyn ([Wikipedia: Jubba River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubba_River)). Its basin, including the Ethiopian highlands that feed it, is put at about 749,000 km² ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubba_River), citing [World Resources Institute](https://web.archive.org/web/20101110220920/http://multimedia.wri.org/watersheds_2003/af10.html)).

The river gives its name to the regions of [Middle Juba](/en/regions/middle-juba/) and [Lower Juba](/en/regions/lower-juba/), to the older name "Upper [Juba](/en/economy/farming-and-harvests/)" for Gedo, Bay and [Bakool](/en/regions/bakool/), and to [Jubaland](/en/states/jubaland/) (formerly Trans-Juba, Italian Oltre Giuba) ([Wikipedia: Jubba River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubba_River)). See also the [Dawa River](/en/regions/dawa-river/), one of its two source rivers.

## Farming and wildlife

The Jubba valley is mostly savanna and is described as the most fertile part of Somalia ([Wikipedia: Jubba River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubba_River)). Farms along the river grow sorghum, maize, beans and sesame, and bananas along the lower Jubba and Shabelle were a major export ([Wikipedia: Shebelle River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebelle_River)). Wildlife recorded in the basin includes giraffes, lions, leopards, hippopotamus, crocodiles, oryx and the Somali wild ass ([Wikipedia: Jubba River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubba_River)).

## History

In the Middle Ages the Ajuran state controlled water on the Jubba and Shabelle. Sources describe irrigation ditches called *kelliyo* that took river water to farms at Baardheere, [Afgooye](/en/regions/lower-shabelle/) and other places, where sorghum, maize, beans and cotton were grown in the Gu and Xagaa seasons. Land was measured in units called *moos*, *taraab* and *guldeed* ([Wikipedia: Jubba River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubba_River)). Crops from the valley went to the coastal ports of Mogadishu, Marka, [Baraawe](/en/regions/barawa/), Kismaayo and Hobyo for trade across the Indian Ocean ([Wikipedia: Jubba River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubba_River)).

In the 1860s the German explorer Karl Klaus von der Decken took the steamer *Welf* up the river. It was wrecked in the rapids above Baardheere, and he and three of his party were killed there ([Wikipedia: Jubba River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubba_River)). The Italian Vittorio Bottego travelled about 640 km of the river in 1891 ([Wikipedia: Jubba River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubba_River)). Britain handed the land west of the river, Jubaland, to Italy in 1924–25, and it became the Oltre Giuba colony ([DC Stamps: Oltre Giuba](https://www.dcstamps.com/oltre-giuba-italian-colony/)).

See also [the Ajuran state](/en/history/ajuran-state/).

## Floods and drought

The Jubba's level depends on rain in the Ethiopian highlands, so it can flood in Somalia even when local rain is low. In wet years, the Shabelle reaches the Jubba and both run to the sea together ([Wikipedia: Shebelle River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebelle_River)). Somalia's two rainy seasons, Gu (April to June) and [Deyr](/en/economy/pastoralism-in-somalia/) (October to December), set the flood risk ([Red Cross Climate Centre](https://www.climatecentre.org/wp-content/uploads/RCCC-Country-profiles-Somalia_2024_final.pdf)). Official flood warnings come from the [Somali Disaster Management Agency](/en/institutions/disaster-management-agency/) ([SoDMA](https://sodma.gov.so/eng/)) and the FAO water and land project [SWALIM](/en/institutions/fao-somalia/) ([FAO SWALIM](https://www.faoswalim.org/)).

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Jubba River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubba_River)
- [Wikidata Q138491](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138491)
- [World Resources Institute, watersheds of Africa](https://web.archive.org/web/20101110220920/http://multimedia.wri.org/watersheds_2003/af10.html)
- [FAO SWALIM](https://www.faoswalim.org/)

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