Fighting has erupted between Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubbaland region and the federal government, officials said on Wednesday, in an escalation of tensions after Jubbaland held an election against the Mogadishu government’s advice.

“This morning, federal forces from Mogadishu in Ras Kamboni, using drones, attacked Jubbaland forces,” Adan Ahmed Haji, assistant security minister of Jubbaland, told a press conference in Jubbaland’s capital Kismayu.

The national government’s Information Minister Daud Aweis and Interior Minister Yusuf Ali did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In late November Jubbaland, which borders Kenya and Ethiopia and is one of Somalia’s five semi-autonomous states, re-elected regional president Ahmed Mohamed Islam Madobe for a third term.

• A Reuters report