Qualla: Las Anod

Las Anod: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Siirski, Public domain. On October 15, 1969, Somali President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke was visiting Las Anod when one of his own bodyguards shot him dead. Six days later, a military coup overthrew the government. It was not the first time this remote city in the Sool region became the fulcrum of national events, and it would not be the last. Las Anod has spent the better part of a century at the intersection of clan politics, colonial boundaries, and competing visions of Somali statehood — a city where the question of who governs has never had a stable answer.

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Image: Siirski | Public domain

Las Anod: Lines on a Map

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zakeriye A Ogle, CC BY-SA 4.0. The roots of Las Anod's contested status stretch back to 1894, when Britain and Italy drew a boundary through the Somali-inhabited Horn of Africa. That line placed Las Anod inside British Somaliland, but the Dhulbahante clan who predominantly inhabit the Sool region maintained ki...

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Image: Zakeriye A Ogle | CC BY-SA 4.0

Las Anod: The Seat of Garad Ali

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John A Hunt , A general survey of the Somaliland protectorate 1944-1950, Public domain. Before the border disputes, Las Anod was a center of political organization. During the British protectorate era, it served as capital of the Nogal District, described by the colonial officer John Hunt as an "entirely Dolbahanta" province. In the late 1950s, the city became the h...

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Image: John A Hunt , A general survey of the Somaliland protectorate 1944-1950 | Public domain

Las Anod: A City Between Armies

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit M.Bitton, CC BY-SA 3.0. In October 2007, Somaliland forces advanced from their base at Adhicadeeye, west of Las Anod, and captured the city from Puntland. Between 10 and 20 people died in the fighting. For the next fifteen years, Somaliland governed Las Anod with what observers described as little local...

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Image: M.Bitton | CC BY-SA 3.0

Las Anod: February 2023

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Siirski, Public domain. In December 2022, the assassination of a popular local politician ignited protests that left 20 people dead. By early February 2023, traditional Dhulbahante elders who had been absent from Las Anod since Somaliland's 2007 takeover gathered in the city to chart a new course. On Fe...

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Image: Siirski | Public domain