Doolow Airport Flights Set to Resume Amid Ongoing Federal-Jubbaland Dispute Over Control

Somalia's federal government has agreed to reopen Doolow airport in the Gedo region, with flights expected to resume on Saturday, August 29, 2026. No official reopening notice or airline schedules were available, and the conditions attached to the decision remain unclear.

The airport has faced repeated disruptions tied to the political standoff between Mogadishu and the Jubbaland administration, rather than a single uninterrupted shutdown. In December 2024, the airport was closed after an aircraft allegedly diverted to Doolow without authorisation. In May 2025, the federal Ministry of Internal Security announced flights could resume following a security review and assurances from local authorities, but Jubbaland's transport ministry later reported the airport had again been closed since July 19, 2025, placing the latest reopening against more than a year of renewed disruption.

The dispute stems from a rift between the federal government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Jubbaland, led by Ahmed Mohamed Islam (Ahmed Madobe), who secured another presidential term in November 2024. Jubbaland's parliament amended the regional constitution to redefine the territory as an independent government rather than a federal member state, a declaration made during a ceremony in Kismayo, and Madobe has said he no longer recognises the Somali federal government.

Armed confrontations have accompanied the dispute, particularly over control of Gedo. Federal troops were ambushed by Jubbaland forces in Doolow in July 2025, and federal forces have since captured several towns in the region, including Balad Hawo and Garbaharey, the regional administrative centre. The federal government has deployed Turkish-trained commandos to the area and has sought to designate Garbaharey as the state headquarters instead of Kismayo. Separately, the Banadir Regional Court confirmed the cancellation of an arrest warrant issued against Madobe in November 2024, clearing a legal obstacle ahead of high-level talks between the administration and the opposition coalition. Gedo regional governor Abdullahi Shimbir warned that any election in the area must adhere to legal frameworks and include broad consultation with regional authorities, while Jubbaland's leadership has accused the federal government of "illegal interference" in the region's affairs.

Doolow's flight history illustrates a pattern seen across contested territories where airport access becomes a lever in a political and military standoff rather than a function of infrastructure or demand. Each closure and reopening has tracked a shift in the federal-Jubbaland relationship, not a change in the airport's physical capacity or safety status.

In markets where a single airstrip serves a town cut off by terrain or distance, that facility's operating status becomes hostage to whichever authority currently asserts control on the ground. Airlines serving such routes cannot plan schedules against ordinary operational risk; they must instead track a shifting political map, since the same runway can be open under one administration's assurances and closed weeks later under a rival claim of jurisdiction.

What happens next depends on whether the reopening holds past the announced date and whether Jubbaland's transport ministry confirms it independently, given that the two sides have previously issued conflicting statements about the airport's status. The cancellation of Madobe's arrest warrant ahead of high-level talks is a separate legal development whose bearing on Gedo's security arrangements is not yet established.