A region in the south of Somalia, beyond the River Juba. It was originally colonized by the British and attached to the Kenya colony, but was transferred to Italian rule on 15 July 1924. For two years it was the separately administered territory of Oltro Giuba ('Beyond the Juba'), but on 1 July 1926 it was united with neighbouring Italian Somaliland, and thus became part of Somalia on independence in 1960.
With the total breakdown of central government in Somalia in the 1990s, various regions have seceded: in 1991 the former British Somaliland in the north declared full independence, followed by declarations of autonomy in 1998 by Puntland in the north and Jubaland in the south.
On 3 September 1998 the Somali Patriotic Movement and the elders of the Digil and Rahanweyn clans declared the State of Jubaland under the presidency of Muhammad Siyad Hersi, the warlord commonly known as Morgan.