Somalia has a road network extending over some 15,000 km, with almost all the main roads in poor condition due to lack of proper maintenance and repairs caused by the long period of civil war. There are five major roads in the country, which connect the main water corridors to the inland towns. Two are from the port of Mogadishu, one from the northwest port of Berbera, and single routes from both Bossaso and Kismayo. The corridors are exclusively accessed or served by road since Somalia has no railway lines. There are also two routes connecting to Djibouti and Somaliland respectively.

Transport in Somalia refers to the transportation networks and modes of transport in effect in Somalia. They include highways, airports and seaports, in addition to various forms of public and private vehicular, maritime and aerial transportation. A 750 km highway connects major cities in the northern part of the country such as Bossaso, Galkayo and Garowe, with towns in the south. In September 2013 the Somali Federal Government signed an official cooperation agreement in Mogadishu with the Chinese Government being part of a five year national recovery plan. The agreement is for China to reconstruct several major infrastructural landmarks in the Somali capital and elsewhere, which includes the road between Galkayo and Burao in the northern part of the country.

Distance Matrix

Travel Time Matrix

Road Security

The road security situation remains very unpredictable.

Weighbridges and Axle Load Limits

Road Class and Surface Conditions

Condition of Roads crossing into Somalia from the neighbouring Countries
There are about 500 – 700 trucks available in the market.
There are several challenges and access limitations that affect users of the road between Mombasa and the three border areas of Southern Somalia particularly during the rainy season. Some of the bottlenecks during the rainy seasons are as follows:

• There is an area of about 10 – 16 km between Hola and Garissa where most of the small bridges are either damaged or washed away by the recent floods which makes it almost impassable during rainy seasons. The situation was caused by the heavy rains that pounded the lower eastern part of Kenya rendering some sections of the Hola – Garissa road impassable.

• The section between Dadaab and Liboi is an earth road in poor condition and impassable during rainy seasons. These sections are the main supply route for the Humanitarian Agencies including the UN who are operational in the area and are continuously carrying out road maintenance to avert interruptions of supplies to the refugee camps.

There are no major road constructions or maintenance currently underway at the moment on this main road linking the Kenyan Port of Mombasa and Somalia border towns. Security situation along the route remains relatively calm as the Kenyan Government engages in the deployment of security forces on various sections of the road. There is a newly constructed way bridge in Mtwapa about 13 km from Mombasa. It is expected however that it will result to higher transport rates as the Somali contractors are required to abide by the Government customs regulations.

Galkayo

Galkayo is the capital of Mudug central Region of Somalia; it links the southern part to the northern regions of the country. The main road from the capital Mogadishu passes through the town of Galkayo. Galkayo itself is divided into two Administrative Authorities, the north is controlled by Puntland and the south of the town is controlled by Galmudug. Therefore Galkayo is well located in a strategic central point, which provides the vital commercial lifeline between southern and northern regions including the rest of the country. Currently this road is mainly used for transporting livestock to the Port of Bossaso and sometimes to the Port of Berbera. It is also used by traders for transporting cargoes of food and non-food items to the Central, Hiran, and Bakool regions.

Galkayo links Bossaso with the Central and Hiran regions as all these regions mainly depend on goods imported through Bossaso Port. The road between Bossaso and Beledweyn through Galkayo is in a good condition. It is approximately 750 km from Galkayo to Bossaso and the same goes to the distance between Galkayo and Mogadishu but the road section between Beledweyn and Mogadishu is not as good as the Galkayo – Bossaso section. In addition to the road infrastructure, there are large private investments in Galkayo but foreign investment is rare in the region, there could be more in the capital Mogadishu. Business opportunities in Galkayo are expanding as movements between Galkayo and the Port of Bossaso is on the increase. 

Due to floods during the rainy season there have been a few road blocks between Bossaso and Garowe which negatively impacts the link to Galkayo and for the time being there is no planned or on-going projects in the area. In addition, Galkayo has a day shift operational airport with some flights of United Nations and privates sectors. These flights link to the rest of the country as well as international flights to and from the country. In conclusion, the logistics infrastructure in the area provides for the current needs but it requires improvements.

Mogadishu

Mogadishu has a road network that connects to most of the regions in the southern Somalia. The main roads are in poor condition due to the above mentioned factors.

The existing main road network is as below:

• Mogadishu – Afgoi – Wenleweyn – Burhakaba – Baidoa: 280 km

• Mogadishu – Afgoi – Shalambod – Merca – BuloMarer – Jilib: 370 km

• Mogadishu – Balad – Jowhar – Burweyn – Beledweyn: 335 km

• Mogadishu – Eelm’an – Warshiekh – Cadale: 180 km

All the above-mentioned roads were built over 30 years ago and have not received proper maintenance for a long period resulting in pot holes that hinder the movement of heavy trucks. The rainy seasons are the worst periods to use these roads when much of southern Somalia become almost impassable and dangerous, specially the paved roads, which has pockets of holes filled with water in the middle of tarmac roads. Apart from the main roads there are secondary roads that are worse than the main roads. They are passable but insecure and therefore not recommended for use of humanitarian cargo transport.

Somaliland (Hargeisa)

The inland and overland transport has resulted in a successful road network that extends thousands of kilometers. The transport industry consists of individual transporters and small ranges of agencies. For cargo movement, trucks of capacities which extend from 5 mt to 30 mt are commonly used. Trucks are hired from the individuals’ owners at market rates per destinations. 

In Somaliland there are enough trucks available to transport cargo within and across the borders. The majority of the roads in Somaliland are murram, block cotton or red soil and sandy along the coastline. Maintenance is done regularly to the tarmac roads, but because of the poor quality of maintenance, does not last long and will have short endurance. 

There are limit loads for trucks, especially for the tarmac roads (5 to 15 mt trucks capacity), but the non-tarmac roads depend on the seasonal situation where rainy seasons create slow traffic. As the commonly used truck capacity is 20 to 30 MT, tarmac roads get deteriorated, but don’t see any proper plan for their development.

For cargo movement, trucks of capacities which extend from 5 mt to 30 mt are commonly used. Trucks are hired from the individual owners at market rates per destinations. Rehabilitation roads are from Hargeisa to Berbera; from Berbera to Buroa; from Hargeisa to Borame; from Hargeisa to Wajaale and one newly established road which connected from Burao to Erigavo.

There are around 8 major roads in Somaliland which connect to other parts of the country. Among them are:

1. Berbera - Hargeisa – Gabiley - Kalabaydh - Tog Wajale: It is 253 km. It is one of the tarmac and good condition roads in Somaliland, with the exception from Kalabaydh to Wajale (19 km), while between Berbera to Kalabaydh is tarmac and usually maintained by the local authority. There is a plan to construct tarmac in this part of marrum, but it not sure when this plan will materialize. This road is busy, with an estimated over 30,000 mt cargoes passing through per month. This road is now occasionally used by WFP Somalia to feed Gedo region and WFP Ethiopia for Zone Five. Turnaround for Dire Dawa is 3 days. There is much traffic movement on this road and with the condition, no delays have been observed even during the rainy seasons.
2. Hargeisa – Berbera – Burao – Las Anod: It is a tarmac road and poorly maintained. Again this road was built for low tonnage vehicles only. It is the third busiest road for trade movement. The road that connects between Berbera and Burao was constructed in 1982. This is the road that takes you to Puntland, Central regions and South Somalia.
3. Hargeisa – Gabilely – Borma – Lowya addo: It is 396 km. The road is tarmac from Hargeisa to Borama with the exception of 2 km before reaching Borama which is currently under construction. Between Borma and Lowya addo, the road is marrum and sandy which hinders smooth traffic movement during rainy seasons.
4. Berbera – Lughaye - Lowya addo: It is 320 km. The road is sandy along the coastline that goes to the Somalia-Djibouti border at Lowya addo. It is the second road used for this corridor, but directly from Berbera without passing through Hargeisa town. This road has no limit of truck load as it is not tarmac. During dry seasons, this road is mostly used by trucks as it is short distance comparatively.
5. Burao – Yarowe – Ina Afmadobe - Garag - El Afweine – Erigavo or Burao – Yarowe – Ainabo – Oog – Goosaweyne – Sincaro – El Afweine - Erigavo: It is 400 km. The road is tarmac from Burao to Ina Afmadobe or from Burao up to Oog. Except for 40 km of gravel, the rest of the road is rough.
6. Berbera–Las-anod- Trucks dual plate numbers are used for this exit point. The road is good tarmac but poorly maintained and with potholes. However, it is one of the good roads and potentially can be used for cross border deliveries. Due to some tension between Somaliland and Puntland authorities, smooth functioning is affected. From Afmadobe to Erigavo or from Gowsaweyne to Erigavo roads are also commonly used. This road is a non-tarmac road with slow deliveries during rainy seasons. Generally speaking, turnaround is 3 to 4 days.

The most recently repaired roads include Hamas to Berbera (about 40 km), Berbera to Sheikh (about 60 km), Kalabaid to Wajaale and Kalbaoid to DIla.

An attempt was made to get official trucking capacity figures from the Somaliland government and the estimate is about 8,000 trucks including smaller vehicles.

Bridges

There are many iron and concrete bridges in southern Somalia and of differing sizes, some for large trucks while others are only for small and light vehicles. The conditions of the bridges are unpredictable due to lack of maintenance for long periods; therefore they should be used with caution. There are very few bridges in Somaliland. River crossings or Irish crossings are common to seasonal conditions. Currently there are 12 culverts of which 8 were destroyed during the civil war, but rebuilt.

Bridges are located in districts with rivers as mentioned below:

The new Federal government of Somalia has established a Ministry of Public Works and Construction that will handle and address the overall infrastructure problems of the country. Although it has not been officially publicized, it’s believed the current projects involving rehabilitation of existing roads in Mogadishu and the surrounding areas has been handed over to the Turkish Government.

For additional information on Somalia road class and surface conditions, please see the following document: Road Class and Surface Conditions Map & Information by Route