Somalia: Prime Minister Roble dismisses Farmajo’s right-hand man to assert control
MOGADISHU, Somalia – The sudden announcement by the Prime Minister’s Office on Friday to sack the chief of staff of Somalia’s controversial spy service, the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), caused seismic waves across the political spectrum and caught initiates by surprise.
Officially Chief of Staff but acting as the de facto deputy director general of NISA, Abdullahi Kulane has long cast a worrying cloud over Somalia’s political and security stability since its strong rise under the Farmaajo administration. Today’s dismissal of Kulane is the first indication that the prime minister, who has faced persistent internal and external pressures to exercise his independence, may have finally acted to assert control over his government.
A returnee from the Minnesota diaspora, Kullane has acted in recent months as Gedo’s shadow governor and key campaign manager for the re-election of beleaguered Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo. In Gedo, Kullane waged the Villa Somalia War to overthrow and ultimately end the authority of the Kismayo-based Jubbaland administration. It succeeded, but not before being condemned by the international community and displacing thousands of residents.
Kullane also created and commanded the controversial Duufaan militias criticized for engineering instability in Gedo and Mogadishu. In recent days, Kullane and his director Fahad Yassin have been implicated by the family of Ikran Tahlil, an NISA agent who went missing in Mogadishu in June, for kidnapping their daughter, who was filmed by CCTV cameras.
On July 21 alone, the prime minister warned security officials not to impede the free movement of politicians and other citizens during the elections. When Kullane banned the planned departure of Osman Moalim, former governor of the Gedo region, the prime minister’s reaction was swift. It ended the political career of a man who in recent years has become the President’s most trusted assistant and a trusted convenience store.
Kullane’s impeachment has long been a key demand of the political opposition and federal member states, which saw him as an agent of chaos. They will welcome his departure but are unlikely to give in to their pressure on the prime minister to change the leadership of NISA, including lone and influential Islamist Fahad Yassin, who heads the agency and has supported Kulane’s most egregious actions. .
Politically, Kullane’s informal sacking today will be a severe, possibly fatal, blow to the interim president’s re-election campaign. More importantly, today’s events signal a separation process for Roble, which has linked his political fate to that of the president and could signal a necessary course correction for the country as it heads into the election.
A contested election result is expected to trigger sustained armed clashes similar to what was seen in late April this year when opposition forces routed the pro-Farmaajo wing of the military. Friday’s event provides the prime minister with a fleeting opportunity to hold credible elections and avoid the possibility of rigging elections with the potential to plunge the country into civil war.
AXADLETM
