SUMMARY
The pretext for the internal squabble within the RRA (Rahanweyn Resistance Army) and the ensuing violence was the group’s self-proclamation of an autonomous region, the ‘Southwest State of Somalia’ (SWS), in April 2002. The RRA’s chairman Col Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud was declared president of the new region, but retained the chairmanship of the RRA as well, to the disdain of his two deputies, Shaykh Adan Madobe and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade. They asserted that he should relinquish the chairmanship post and broke away from the RRA, together with militia forces loyal to them. By July 2002 the non-state conflict was a fact.
By the time that Madobe had declared himself the legitimate chairman of the RRA and his faction had temporarily managed to seize the provincial capital Baidoa in October 2002, he stated that “[Shatigadud’s forces] can return to the town and region … it is Shatigadud who committed criminal acts against the Digil and Mirifle [Rahanweyn clans]”- in essence, indicating that the conflict was waged primarily against the person of Shatigadud. In the same interview, Madobe explained why Shatigadud had to be combated in these terms: “… we begged him to stop fighting but he refused; elders tried to mediate between us but he declined. He engineered hostilities so that people could destroy each other. For these reasons I will not forgive him. The Digil and Mirifle people can decide to forgive him. He is a criminal.”
The clashes between RRA and RRA - MH were fierce and intermittent; and centered upon gaining control of the town Baidoa which experienced a tug-of-war in the hands of the warring parties. In their fight, both sides made use of battlewagons, rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns, and mortars. Shatigadud’s militia allegedly received weapons from the government of Ethiopia while RRA - MH reportedly obtained arms from the Somali TNG (Transitional National Government).
The violent incidents have mostly occurred in Baidoa (in Somali, Baydhabo), the main town in the Bay region some 250 km northwest of Mogadishu.
The non-state conflict between RRA and RRA - MH is first included in UCDP data in 2002. In July that year the death of eight militiamen led the conflict to cross the 25 battle-related deaths threshold.
