Shebelle River in the context of "Afgooye"

The Rahanweyn (Maay: Reewin, Somali: Raxanweyn, Arabic: رحنوين), also known as the Digil and Mirifle (Somali: Digil iyo Mirifle) is a major Somali clan. It is one of the major Somali clans in the Horn of Africa, with a large territory in the densely populated fertile valleys of the Jubba and Shebelle rivers and the areas inbetween, which are mainly inhabited by settlers from the Digil and Mirifle lineages.

The Somali Bantus (also known as Jareerweyne or Gosha) are a Bantu ethnic minority group in Somalia who primarily reside in the southern part of the country, primarily near the Jubba and Shabelle rivers. The Somali Bantus are descendants of enslaved peoples from various Bantu ethnic groups from Southeast Africa, particularly from Mozambique, Malawi, and Tanzania. The East African slave trade was not eliminated until the early parts of the 20th century.

Somali Bantus are not ancestrally related to the indigenous ethnic Somalis of Cushitic background and have a culture distinct from the ethnic Somalis. The Somali Bantu have remained marginalized ever since the establishment of Somalia. Some Somali Bantu people have been displaced into Kenya, and a small number have returned to Tanzania. An overseas diaspora community of Somali Bantus can be found primarily in the United States.

Banaadir (Somali: Banaadir, Arabic: بنادر, Italian: Benadir) is an administrative region (gobol) in southeastern Somalia. It covers the same area as the city of Mogadishu, which serves as the capital. It is the only region in the country not belonging to any of the seven states. It is bordered to the northwest by the Shabelle river and to the southeast by the Indian Ocean.

The territorial extent and scope of the term Benaadir has varied in definition throughout its history, with medieval usage extending Benaadir to huge swaths of coast adjacent to Mogadishu stretching as far as hundreds of miles, from Hobyo in the north. The early modern period which extended the meaning of Benaadir to the interior midway towards the Hirshabelle region, to the contemporary period wherein sometimes the nonstandard misnomer of usage being interchangeable with the city of Mogadishu. This Banaadir municipality is bordered to the north by Hirshabelle and to the southwest by South West, and is the only Somali gobol (administrative region) which is both a municipality and a gobol known as a region.

The 1992 famine in Somalia resulted from a severe drought and devastation caused by warring factions in southern Somalia, primarily the Somali National Front, in the fertile inter-riverine breadbasket between the Jubba and Shebelle rivers. The resulting famine primarily affected residents living in the riverine area, predominantly in Bay Region, and those internally displaced by the civil war.

During the second half of 1992, the famine began to recede, partly due to the lull in fighting, which allowed the first crop harvest in the Lower Shebelle region, and also due to large-scale international food deliveries. Local Somali-led initiatives formed to address starvation were eventually overwhelmed, particularly in the Bay region. The crisis led to the creation of UNOSOM I in April 1992. The Red Cross took lead of the response, spending more than half of its 1992 budget on the crisis and distributing 75% of all relief in Somalia. From August to December 1992, the United States operated an aid airlift to the Red Cross that saved approximately 40,000 lives.