SUMMARY
The RRA - MH (Rahanweyn Resistance Army - Madobe and Habsade faction) broke away in July 2002 from the Rahanweyn clan-based, autonomist armed group RRA (Rahanweyn Resistance Army). The rift was triggered upon the RRA’s self-proclamation of an autonomous region, the ‘Southwest State of Somalia’ (SWS), in April 2002. Thus already in May 2002 there were rumours of splits within the RRA; two RRA deputies (and soon to be faction leaders) Shaykh Adan Madobe and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade had asserted that inasmuch as the RRA chairman, Col Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud, was now president of the self-declared SWS, Shaykh Aden, the first vice-chairman should become chairman of the RRA. At that point, the RRA leadership denied the internal squabbling. Additionally, Madobe and Habsade were sympathetic to the Transitional National Government (TNG) while chairman Shatigadud sided with the warlord alliance SRRC (Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council) who had begun to violently challenge the TNG in 2001.
However, on 1 July 2002, the first fighting broke out between forces loyal to Shatigadud and forces loyal to Madobe and Habsade in Baidoa, the provincial capital and headquarters of the RRA. When Madobe declared himself new chairman of the RRA in late July, the leadership split was official. After sporadic, but fierce fighting between the original RRA and the RRA - MH in 2002-2003, Shatigudud and Madobe reconciled in 2004 and they both joined the newly-established TFG (Transitional Federal Government) cabinet in 2005. Habsade also joined the interim government as a parliamentarian, but stayed committed to the RRA - MH. In 2005 the RRA faction led by Habsade waged an armed fight against the RRA as Habsade accused Madobe and Shatigudud of attacking Baidoa by taking the city on behalf of Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who later used the city to establish a new interim capital of the country.
Both in 2002 and 2003, there were reports that the 2000-2004 TNG was supporting the RRA - MH by supplying large amounts of funds and weapons. There were also claims in 2002 that the Jilible clan (to which Abdalla Derow Isaq, then speaker of TNG, belongs) dispatched militiamen to Bardaale from the region of Bakool to reinforce the RRA - MH.
The main leaders of the RRA - MH have been Shaykh Adan Madobe and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade. In 2005, Madobe returned to Shatigudud’s original RRA. At that point, Habsade, who had joined the interim parliament but opposed the relocation of the TFG to Baidoa, remained as sole leader of the RRA - MH.
RRA - MH has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.
