City Detail

Kismayo (Somali: Kismaayo, Maay: Kismanyy, Arabic: كيسمايو, Kīsmāyū; Italian: Chisimaio) is a port city in the southern Lower Juba (Jubbada Hoose) province of Somalia. It is the commercial capital of the autonomous Jubaland region. The city is situated 528 kilometres (328 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, near the mouth of the Jubba River, where the waters empty into the Indian Ocean. According to the United Nations Development Programme, the city of Kismayo had a population of around 89,333 in 2005.During the Middle Ages, Kismayo and its surrounding area was part of the Ajuran Empire that governed much of southern Somalia and eastern Ethiopia, with its domain extending from Hobyo in the north, to Qelafo in the west, to Kismayo in the south.In the early modern period, Kismayo was ruled by the Geledi Sultanate and by the later 1800s, the Boqow dynasty. The kingdom was eventually incorporated into Italian Somaliland in 1910 after the death of the last sultan, Osman Ahmed.