Rail transport in Somalia

In the 1920s, Principe Luigi Amedeo, Duca degli Abruzzi, a senior member of the Italian Royal Family, had the railway extended to the Shebelle River agricultural settlements that he was then developing.

Most products transported were bananas, cotton and coffee from farm plantations in the Villabruzzi area, which were later exported through the Port of Mogadishu.

The railway was 46 km long and united the farming settlement of Genale with Afgoi on the Mogadishu-Villagio Duca degli Abruzzi route.

Construction was managed by the Società Agricola Italo Somala (SAIS), which opened the track so that its plantations' powered sugar cane could be transported to the Mogadishu Port.

A small 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) gauge railway of 250 km was constructed between Villabruzzi and the Somalia-Ethiopia border in order to solve the logistical problems related to the conquest and occupation of Ethiopia.

The railway of Somalia italiana connected the capital city Mogadishu with Afgooye, and subsequently after 1929 with Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi -called usually Villabruzzi (present-day Jowhar).