It’s meant to be Somalia’s breadbasket, not a battleground — but Baidoa is once again at the centre of a brutal power struggle that’s left bodies in the streets and hospitals overflowing.

As reported by cbinews.tv, fierce fighting erupted in the key southwestern city on Monday, killing dozens and leaving nearly 100 people wounded, including at least four civilians caught in the crossfire.

Here’s what’s really going on:

So, the clashes kicked off on the outskirts of Baidoa when militia loyal to former Southwest State president Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen launched an attack on federal government positions.

It got messy, fast. Somalia’s federal government didn’t mince its words, accusing Laftagareen’s fighters of teaming up with the al-Qaeda-linked extremist group al-Shabaab.

“We have confirmed that they were accompanied by al-Shabaab. We found al-Shabaab fighters who were killed in the battle and we also captured some of them alive,” said Southwest State Internal Security Minister Isak Mohamed Korsaar.

Calm only returned on Tuesday, with soldiers patrolling battered streets and checking damaged buildings and vehicles, while terrified residents cautiously peeked out of their homes.

But the human cost is huge. Hospital officials say close to 100 people were wounded, piling immense pressure on health services that were already on their knees.

And that’s because Baidoa isn’t just any city. It’s the interim capital of Southwest State and, in normal times, sits at the heart of Somalia’s breadbasket.

For the last decade, it’s also become Somalia’s displacement capital. After successive failed rains and conflict since 2017, its population has exploded five to six times in five years. The UN now estimates it hosts around 649,465 internally displaced people, while other agencies put it at 500,000 IDPs living in overcrowded settlements — the second-largest IDP population in Somalia after Mogadishu. Nationwide, there are about 2.6 million IDPs.

Why this keeps happening – a bit of history:

This isn’t a one-off. Somalia has been fighting an al-Shabaab insurgency for over two decades, but Mogadishu is now facing armed rebellion from its own federal states too.

Laftagareen had run Southwest State for more than seven years. In March 2026, he severed ties with the federal government over controversial constitutional amendments pushed through by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, accusing Mogadishu of attempting a coup against him.

That triggered clashes and, by late March, federal forces rolled into Baidoa with armoured personnel carriers and took over, with Laftagareen announcing his resignation on Facebook. The Ministry of Information said his administration had “created political conflict”.

His loyalists haven’t gone quiet. They’ve hit the city repeatedly since, including a failed attempt to retake control in May. Monday’s dawn attack, which briefly saw them claim parts of the city centre, came just ahead of the swearing-in of new Southwest lawmakers.

The fact that federal officials say al-Shabaab fighters were found among the dead suggests a worrying coordination — the extremists exploiting a federal-regional rift they’ve long thrived on.

For now, Baidoa is back under federal control, but with humanitarian flights the only ones allowed in and out, and hundreds of thousands of displaced Somalis trapped in the middle, the city’s long, painful cycle of drought, hunger and gunfire is far from over.

Original reporting via cbinews.tv. Additional background from UN, IOM and local reports.

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