# Shabelle River (Webiga Shabeelle)

> The Shabelle River (Webiga Shabeelle): about 1,820 km from the Bale highlands in Ethiopia through Hiiraan and the Shabelle regions.

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

## Course

The [Shabelle](/en/economy/farming-and-harvests/) begins in the highlands of Ethiopia, in the Bale Mountains, and flows south-east into Somalia towards Mogadishu ([Wikipedia: Shebelle River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebelle_River); [Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/place/Shebeli-River)). Its total length is given as 1,820 km ([Wikipedia: Shebelle River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebelle_River)). In Somalia it passes through [Hiiraan](/en/regions/hiiraan/), [Middle Shabelle](/en/regions/middle-shabelle/) and [Lower Shabelle](/en/regions/lower-shabelle/) ([Wikipedia: Shebelle River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebelle_River)).

Near Mogadishu the river turns sharply south-west and runs parallel to the coast. Below this point it becomes seasonal. In most years it ends in wetlands and sandy plains north-east of the Jubba; only in years of heavy rain does it reach the [Jubba River](/en/regions/jubba-river/) and so the sea ([Wikipedia: Shebelle River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebelle_River)). Older writers called it "the Nile of Mogadishu", and the traveller Thomas Wakefield recorded the name "Adari River" ([Wikipedia: Shebelle River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebelle_River)).

Its tributaries include the Erer, the Galetti and the Wabe. The Fafan reaches it only in very wet years ([Wikipedia: Shebelle River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebelle_River)).

## People and farming

Arsi Oromo live around its source, Somalis in the Somali Region of Ethiopia along its middle course, and Somalis in Somalia along its lower course ([Wikipedia: Shebelle River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebelle_River)). In the lower basin farming has largely replaced herding, and bananas grown along the southern Shabelle and Jubba were a major Somali export ([Wikipedia: Shebelle River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebelle_River)).

In the Middle Ages the Ajuran state controlled the water of the Shabelle and Jubba. Irrigation ditches called *kelliyo* fed farms that grew sorghum, maize, beans and cotton in the Gu and Xagaa seasons, and crops went to the coastal ports of Mogadishu, Marka, [Baraawe](/en/regions/barawa/), Kismaayo and Hobyo for trade ([Wikipedia: Shebelle River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebelle_River)).

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

## Dams

In 1989 the Melka Wakena dam was built on the upper Shabelle in the Bale Mountains with Soviet help. It produces 153 megawatts and was described as Ethiopia's largest hydroelectric plant ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebelle_River), citing [Media Ethiopia](https://web.archive.org/web/20060522223124/http://www.mediaethiopia.com/Engineering/Lulseged_on_hydroelectric.htm)).

## Floods

People along the river give its big floods names. Sources record the *hidigsayley* flood of 1965, the *soogudud* of 1966 and the *kabahay* of 1978, and say the river flooded about every other year before the 1960s ([Wikipedia: Shebelle River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebelle_River)).

On 23 October 1999 a night flood in the Somali Region of Ethiopia hit 14 of 117 kebeles in Kelafo woreda and 29 of 46 in Mustahil woreda. Local authorities reported 34 people and about 750 animals dead and 70,000 people affected ([UN Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia, 1999](https://www.africa.upenn.edu/eue_web/som1199.htm)). A flood called *dawdle* in 2003 washed away 119 people and about 100 animals, and in April 2005 about 30,000 people were cut off by water and 2,000 camels and 4,000 sheep and goats were lost ([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, but the river also rises with rain in the Ethiopian highlands ([Red Cross Climate Centre](https://www.climatecentre.org/wp-content/uploads/RCCC-Country-profiles-Somalia_2024_final.pdf)). River levels and flood warnings are published by FAO [SWALIM](/en/institutions/fao-somalia/) ([FAO SWALIM](https://www.faoswalim.org/)) and the [Somali Disaster Management Agency](/en/institutions/disaster-management-agency/) ([SoDMA](https://sodma.gov.so/eng/)).

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Shebelle River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebelle_River)
- [Britannica: Shebeli River](https://www.britannica.com/place/Shebeli-River)
- [Wikidata Q141915](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q141915)
- [UN Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia, Somali Region floods, Nov 1999](https://www.africa.upenn.edu/eue_web/som1199.htm)
- [FAO SWALIM](https://www.faoswalim.org/)

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