Jubaland president receives UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia

[Deeq A.]

By Ahmed Abdi

KISMAAYO— Jubaland president received Sunday the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia at Presidential Palace in Kismayo.

President Ahmed Mohamed shared with Michael Keating about the current challenges facing his state.

After meeting, Keating said in a tweet that the Jubaland state has many challenges including Somalia’s insurgency and many internally displaced persons that need humanitarian assistance.

“Catching up with state President Madobe of Jubaland which faces many challenges including insurgency and many internally displaced persons in need.”

The Governor of lower Juba Abdirashid Abdullahi Ali Gooni called on his local officials to work with United Nations Office in terms of helping Somali nationals returning from foreign refugee camps.

This autonomous state has strategically situated the mouth of the Indian Ocean and the entrance to the Red Sea which will connect the Eastern African region to the outside World for the near future.

Experts say Jubaland is the most prosperous regional state that has the largest coast of Somalia which its coastline is more than 3,333 kilometers in length, the longest of mainland Africa and the Middle East.

Turkey and UAE sent delegations to Kismayo in an effort to present themselves in a region believed its natural resources mainly oil unexploited. Ras-kamboni, a coastal town in the Indian Ocean near Kenyan border is thought to have rich deposits of oil and other marine resources.

The United States first built the port of Kismayo and China involved in some industrial projects in Jubaland before the civil war in the 1990s.