October 22, 2021
Warsan- Mogadishu
Somalia’s president and prime minister resolved a dispute over appointments to security bodies, allowing a stalled process to elect a new parliament and president to go ahead, the government spokesman said late on Thursday.
Somalia was meant to choose a new president this month, culminating a complicated indirect election process that would also select a parliament.
But that was halted during a dispute between President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and Prime Minister Mohammed Hussein Roble over who would head the National Intelligence Service Agency.
Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and his Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble reached agreements Thursday on most matters that had driven a wedge between them.
The agreement include the Security Minister Abdullahi Mohamed Nur, who was appointed by the prime minister stays in office, as will Yasin Farey acting National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) chief, until a new one is appointed.
The leaders also agreed that the case of the mysterious killing of female Somali intelligence operative Ikran Tahlil Farah in June will be left to the Somali judicial services, who will seek justice for her in the courts.
Tensions between Mohamed and Roble had risen since they appointed separate individuals to head the country’s intelligence agency earlier this month.
Roble had dismissed National Intelligence and Security Agency Director Fahad Yasin, alleging that he had failed to deliver a report on the murder of Farah, who disappeared in June.
He appointed Bashir Mohamed Jama as the agency’s interim chief, while President Mohamed named Yasin Abdullahi Mohamed as its head.
On Sept. 16, President Mohamed suspended Roble’s power to appoint and remove officials, accusing him of making “rash and hasty decisions.”
