(ERGO) – A peace agreement ending a bitter, protracted conflict between clans in Hananbure, central Somalia’s Galmudug state, has enabled families to return home to rebuild their lives after being scattered for five years.
Since the agreement was finally made in August 2025, after many meetings between the warring sides, families like that of Fadumo Aabi Ahmed, 33, a mother of six, have begun rebuilding their lives again.
Fadumo reopened her small restaurant in Hananbure that shut down during the conflict. She earns $5-7 in daily income that allows her to make an independent, dignified living.
“I collected money from relatives, and with that money I opened the business. With God’s grace, it worked for me. It is enough for my family. I send my children to school and Koranic classes. When I was displaced and living in the camp, even one meal was difficult for me, but now I cook three meals a day,” Fadumo told Radio Ergo.
When conflict broke out in 2020, she first moved with her livestock to the outskirts of Hananbure to stay with relatives. As insecurity and also drought worsened, she migrated again in 2022 with her children to an internal displacement camp in Dhusamareb. Camp living conditions were extremely poor and worsened in 2025 when humanitarian assistance stopped.
She had to abandon her last 30 goats – the drought survivors – and her shop and restaurant worth $6,000, including all the goods in stock, when she fled Hananbure.
“We were pastoralists before. Drought wiped out our livestock, and then conflict destroyed our homes. Widespread hunger followed and people scattered. We fled to camps in Dhusamareb. When we arrived there, it was difficult. We stayed three years in the camps,” she said. “Displacement confused us, and we faced severe hardship and deprivation.”
Fadumo, who is divorced and raising her children alone, plans to repair the metal-sheet house she owns in Hananbure that was damaged during the fighting. She estimates the repairs will cost about $250, which she is saving from her daily earnings.
She has enrolled three of her children in school, paying $30 monthly fees. She says this was a long-held dream that had seemed impossible while the family was displaced.
She credits her quick recovery to the reopening of trade routes after the resolution of the conflict, and that her business now serves customers from all sides. She plans to expand her restaurant and is also trying to put money aside in case conflict returns.
Hananbure, which links several surrounding villages, is a crossroads for trade. Farhiyo Hassan Artan returned and reopened her women’s clothing shop in December, using $500 borrowed from a relative.
She fled in 2020 to Olol in Galgadud. Her family endured extreme hardship during displacement, but she can now meet their basic needs, making at least $5 a day from the shop, which supports her seven children.
“My life is now good. I have returned to Hananbure. My life depends on the small shop where I sell cooked food and clothes. I have revived my business. Hananbure is good now, there is peace, and we hope for even better,” Farhiyo said.
She recalls that during displacement, they were short of food and water and often slept under trees that offered little protection from the sun or wind, especially after drought stripped them of leaves. She cooked irregular meals, relying on occasional help from residents of Olol, who took pity on her children.
Farhiyo says her former shop and $500 worth of goods was looted at night by armed men she could not identify. Their two-room house was also destroyed, along with all household belongings.
Today, she lives in a small, corrugated iron room, paying $20 rent for the house and $25 for the shop.
Despite her losses, Farhiyo says returning home has brought her relief and hope. She believes that with lasting peace, she can rebuild everything she lost.
She is also a single mother and suffered constant anxiety about her children’s future. She has re-enrolled three of her children in school after their education was interrupted.
“I take my children to school and Koranic classes by myself. I have no one else to help me. I work for my children alone,” she said. “My children were uneducated, lagging behind others while we were displaced, but today, they are back in school. God has returned us to our former life.”
The peace agreement involved the efforts of elders, religious leaders, intellectuals, and youth activists.
Hassan Ali Dhagacaleen, one of the youth involved in the reconciliation process, told Radio Ergo that the agreement included bringing to justice anyone who disrupts security, settling blood compensation cases, and ensuring shared access to grazing land.
“I was among those personally affected by the conflict. My father was killed. I was wounded when armed men stopped our vehicle on the road. My aunt, uncle, and brother were also injured, and our vehicle was burned. Despite this, I am among the youth working for peace and development. I call on Muslim brothers to support those affected by the conflict and to stand with them,” he stated.
Inter-clan conflicts have increased in central Somalia, and elsewhere in Somalia, in the last couple of years, although residents of Hananbure believe this peace deal shows that reconciliation is always possible.
