Supporters of the recently ousted federal President Mohammed Abdullah Mohammed 'Farmajo' resent the popularity of Hassan Sheikh's hard line on Al Shabaab and have been working to sow division in major clans...
Instead he had left in place officers beholden to ex-President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' and his right-hand man Fahad Yasin (AC Vol 63 No 19 Why the killing of a spy is shaking the state)...
Hassan Sheikh is banking on non-traditional donors to help him as well as trying to fix the damage caused by ex-President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo''s underhand attempts to perpetuate his rule which many believed jeopardised Somalia's small-scale but hard-won national institutions (AC Vol 63 No 3 The on-off elections are back on)...
President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' only admitted during the handover ceremony with Hassan Sheikh in May that as alleged in the media and confirmed by anxious relatives the 5 000 had been secretly dispatched to Eritrea for training (AC Vol 63 No 12 Hassan Sheikh takes Mogadishu by storm & Vol 62 No 21 At the mercy of friends)...
This is despite being vilified and attacked militarily by the Salafists who are influential in Mogadishu especially in the circles of ex-President Mohammed Abdullah Mohammed 'Farmajo' (AC Vol 62 No 22 Army bloodies Sufi militia)...
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's presidency is off to an energetic start with a major reorientation of Somalia's regional alliances a return to federalist and devolutionary policies and a purge of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) which was stuffed with supporters of his predecessor Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' and infiltrated by Al Shabaab...
Somalis press-ganged to fight in Ethiopia Ex-President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' finally acknowledged at the handover ceremony for his successor that about 5 000 Somalis had been sent for military training in Eritrea and they should be back home soon...
It is proposed to mark the change in NISA's national role by renaming it the Federal Intelligence and Security Agency (FISA) underlining President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's commitment to the federal system which President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' was opposed to and to make it a neutral servant of the state...
Eritrea's President Issayas Afewerki and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed would have preferred outgoing President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' to have won another term due to their security arrangements with him (AC Vol 62 No 21 At the mercy of friends)...
The US decision suggests its officials believe that Hassan Sheikh who was president from 2012-2017 will try to restructure and depoliticise Somalia's military and security services whose capacity had sharply declined under outgoing President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo'...
A year ago Mogadishu was on a war footing and President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' was doing everything in his power to stay on even if it meant damaging national institutions carefully built up over the years and factionalising the security forces...
The election of President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' in February 2017 dramatically changed the political climate...
That militants were able to penetrate one of the most heavily guarded locations in Mogadishu has been taken as proof by many analysts – even more so by the public – of collusion between the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) which is loyal to President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' and the Al Qaida-affiliated jihadists...
But the reason Bihi got a more sympathetic hearing than usual – especially at the citadel of conservatism the American Enterprise Institute – is that President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' cannot deliver a unitary Somali state which could act as a strategic ally to the US...
The FEIC as well as some of Fahad Yasin's own clan elders rejected this highly contentious election and angered President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' who it seems cannot do without Fahad Yasin...