Somalia government sacks security chiefs after Al-Shabaab attack on presidential palace

Mogadishu (Harar24) – Following last night’s attack on the Somali presidential palace by Al-Shabaab fighters and prior attacks causing a growing security concern in the capital, the Somali prime minister in a decree announced the sacking of the director of intelligence and the head of the police force.

The two sacked officials were General Abdihakim Dahir Sa’id, the head of the Somali police, and General Bashir Ahmed Jama’ “Gobe”, head of the national intelligence service. The two men were replaced by General Mohamed Sheikh Hasan, who was named as the head of the police and General Mohamed Abdullahi Hamud, as acting head of national intelligence.

In the same issued decree a new security minister was announced, after the post was vacant for two months due to the resignation of the former security minister, Abdikarim Husein Guled, on the night the parliament was targeted in a previous attack. Khalif Mohamed Ereg, who served as an intelligence chief in Mogadishu, was named as the new security minister.

Many security analysts question the effectiveness of these dismissals, sacking and changes, especially after the appointment of Khalif Ereg, who himself was sacked from his position as intelligence chief early last year, after much chaos ensued in the city due to increased attacks. Human right activists in the city have also accused Khalif Ereg for his out-of-law actions during his time as intelligence chief, where extra-judicial killings were common against innocent people and suspected Al-Shabaab members, often a time dead bodies of people who were thought to be imprisoned where found lying dead on Mogadishu’s streets during his iron-fisted reign.