Duduble (Maxamuud Hiraab, Hawiye)

Name and family tree

The Duduble are a clan of the Hawiye, in the Hiraab line with the Habar Gidir, the Abgaal and the Sheekhaal. Wikipedia says they are also known as Maxamuud Hiraab. It says the name comes from dudub, "strength", a nickname of their founder (Wikipedia, Duduble, backup).

Wikipedia cites a UNHCR note that the Duduble are "the youngest among the Hiraab family" (Wikipedia, Duduble, backup). See the Hawiye tree.

Main branches

Wikipedia lists nine lines (Wikipedia, Duduble, backup):

1. Aarsade
2. Maxamed Camal
3. Iijecle
4. Habar Awradeen
5. Maqlisame
6. Celi
7. Bisin
8. Qadhoob
9. Da'uud

Somali Wikipedia says the Duduble have eight large lafo (bones). It lists Maxamed Camal, with Cabdi, Maxamuud (Kuulbayr) and Afrax Maxamed under it. It also lists Maqlisame, with Ugaas Wehliye and Reer Nuur. Further lines it names are Aarsade, Celi, Da'uud, Samadoor, Iijecle, Bisin, Qadhoob, Hantile and Awradeen (Somali Wikipedia, Duduble, backup). ACLED codes two sub-groups, Eli and Mohamed Amal (ACLED 2025).

Where they live

No census counts Somalis by clan. ACCORD notes that Somalis often claim more members than their groups have, "in order to demonstrate strength" (ACCORD, Clans in Somalia, 2009, p. 11).

See Galgaduud, Mogadishu and Galmudug.

History on record

• 1600s to 1700s. Wikipedia says a chief known as Caaqil Dheryodhoobe led the clan in the Nugaal area. It says drought and conflict later moved parts of the clan south (Wikipedia, Duduble, backup).
• 1921. Wikipedia cites a former Ceel Buur district governor, Hussein Ali Dualeh. He wrote that the Duduble ugaas and other leaders were given rifles near Hobyo to fight Sultan Ali Yusuf Kenadid of Hobyo (same source).
• 1991 to 2000. It says the Duduble worked mainly within the USC and then the Somali National Alliance. It records a clash with the Cayr in Mogadishu on 12 September 1995, ended by elders (same source).
• 2001. It says the Duduble joined the Cayr, Murusade and Mareexaan groups in forming the Juba Valley Alliance (same source).
• 1990s to 2006. It says Duduble figures set up Islamic courts in Mogadishu. It says the clan became a core part of the Islamic Courts Union (same source).
• 2007 to 2014. It says the Duduble were a core part of the armed resistance to Ethiopian forces in Mogadishu in 2007. It says elders in Ceel Buur signed an agreement with Al-Shabaab in December 2011. It also records that a Duduble MP, Abdullahi Isse Abtidon, was killed in April 2009 by suspected Al-Shabaab gunmen (same source). See the war of 2006 to 2009.
• 2020s. It says the Duduble now take part in the fight against Al-Shabaab (same source).

Wikipedia lists the runner Abdi Nageeye and the activist Elman Ali Ahmed as Duduble. It also names Mohamed Abdulle Halane, a veteran of the 1964 border war (same source).

Elders and customary law

Senior Somali clan leaders carry titles such as suldaan, ugaas or issim. Their role is "mainly judicial and representative" (UK Home Office, CPIN Somalia: clans, 2019, quoting EASO 2014).

Wikipedia quotes a Duduble suldaan, Farah Foodey, on the 1921 war with Hobyo. It says Duduble courts in the 1990s let a victim's family choose between diya and the death penalty (Wikipedia, Duduble, backup). Somali Wikipedia names an Ugaas Wehliye line within the Maqlisame (Somali Wikipedia, Duduble, backup). See xeer, Somali customary law.

In recent conflict records

The EUAA lists these Duduble disputes as active or possibly active in April 2023 to March 2025 (EUAA Country Focus 2025, section 1.5.1):

• with the Cayr, on the outskirts of Dhuusamarreeb district
• with the Saleebaan, in villages near Cadaado district
• with the Murusade, in villages near Ceel Buur. The EUAA says Al-Shabaab, which controls that area, stopped the fighting.

The EUAA also records that on 3 October 2024 a Duduble militia attacked pastoralists from another clan in Gaalo village near Dhuusamarreeb (same source). Earlier, the EASO said the Duduble, Murusade and Waceysle in south-east Galgaduud saw the Habar Gidir of the north as dominant in Galmudug. It quoted a security expert who called Al-Shabaab "a convenient partner" for those groups (EASO 2021). See Saleebaan, Murusade and clan conflicts, district by district.

Where sources differ

• Place in the tree. Abbink and Wikipedia put the Duduble beside the Habar Gidir under Hiraab. ACLED and the EUAA code them under the Habar Gidir.
• Sections. Wikipedia lists nine lines. Somali Wikipedia says eight, then names more, including Samadoor and Hantile.
• Early history. Somali Wikipedia links the Duduble to ancient Punt and the Macrobians. It gives no source for this, and no other source here makes the claim.

Read more

• Hawiye
• Habar Gidir
• Murusade
• Galgaduud