Qandala (Candala)

Where it is

Qandala is the main town of Qandala district in the Bari region of Puntland, 75 km east of Bosaso on the Gulf of Aden (Wikipedia: Qandala), at about 11.47°N, 49.87°E (Wikidata). It sits at the mouth of a dry river bed (wadi), which forms a natural sheltered harbour (Wikipedia: Qandala). Wikipedia gives its population as about 19,300 (Wikipedia: Qandala).

Ancient port and frankincense

Sources identify Qandala with Tabae, a port named in the 1st-century Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (Wikipedia: Qandala). The ports of the far north-east traded incense, gums and aromatic woods to Roman Egypt, Arabia, Persia and India (Wikipedia: Qandala). Its nickname, Gacanka Hodonka ("the gulf of plenty"), is linked to the frankincense and myrrh of the nearby Cal Miskat mountains, which local people still harvest (Wikipedia: Qandala). See also frankincense and myrrh.

The Majeerteen Sultanate

In the early modern period Qandala was a port of the Majeerteen Sultanate, trading with southern Arabia, Egypt and India alongside Hafun, Bargaal, Habo, Caluula and Bosaso. A castle from this period still stands (Wikipedia: Qandala). In the late 1920s Italian bombardment in the campaign against the northern sultanates badly damaged Qandala, Caluula, Bargaal, Hafun and Habo (Wikipedia: Alula, Somalia).

2016: Islamic State-linked group takes the town

On 26 October 2016 a group linked to the Islamic State took Qandala with about 50 armed fighters after a short gunfight with local security forces. It was the first town in Somalia held by an Islamic State-linked group (Reuters, Oct 2016). Reports then differed on whether the fighters had withdrawn (Long War Journal, Oct 2016).

On 7 December 2016 a Somali official said Puntland forces had retaken the port, killing 30 militants; four soldiers were also killed (Washington Post / AP, Dec 2016). Reports in 2017 said the Islamic State group in Somalia worked closely with pirate networks, one of them based in Qandala (Wikipedia: Piracy off the coast of Somalia).

Schools and transport

Puntland's education ministry lists 15 primary schools in Qandala district, among them Xamure, Dhadar, Turmasale and Gurur (Puntland Ministry of Education). The town has a small sea port and an airstrip, Candala airport (Wikipedia: Qandala; Great Circle Mapper: HCMC). OCHA publishes a reference map of the district (OCHA, Qandala district map).

Sources

• Wikipedia: Qandala
• Wikidata Q1668870
• Reuters, Islamic State-linked fighters seize Qandala, Oct 2016
• Washington Post / AP, Somalia retakes town, Dec 2016
• Puntland Ministry of Education, primary schools