President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud replaced Mahad Salaad with Abdullahi Sanbalolshe as director of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) as his political interests have shifted. Salaad, a staunch ally, has held this position since President Mohamud came to power in May 2022.
At the time, the appointment was made against the advice of the previous director, Fahad Yasin, who accused Mahad of having links with the terrorist group Al-Shabab. This did not prevent however the president from appointing him and giving him carte blanche on all national security issues.
Mahad Salaad, the president’s henchman
The president’s faith in Mahad was initially unshakeable as Mahad strongly supported President Sheikh Mahamud’s ascension to supreme power. Like the president, he belongs to the Hawiye clan which dominates the national capital region. His Habargidir subclan and his control over internal security predisposed him to seek to replace Ahmed Karie Qoorqoor at the head of the regional state of Galmudug.
His tenure as intelligence chief, however, was highly controversial. Before his appointment, he participated in the violent uprising of a clan militia wanting to oust President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo from power. And as a member of parliament, he tried to undermine the work of parliament which he considered to be pro-Farmaajo and was subsequently sanctioned.
A few weeks after Mahad Salaad’s appointment as NISA’s chief, his predecessor Fahad Yasin revealed, in a rare interview, that he had, prior the appointment, tipped off the president of Mahad’s long-standing links with Al-Shabab to no avail. Fahad, known for his discretion, is credited with modernizing the agency to make it more efficient and welcoming for young graduates.
The administration gave a semblance of legitimacy to NISA’s activities in a February 2023 legislation that Human Rights Watch criticized for the “sweeping powers of arrest, detention, and surveillance with minimal independent oversight” and even immunity it grants NISA agents and its director.
Allegation of abuse and complaints
According to Fahad Yasin, Mahad used the immunity conferred on him by his position as a MP to facilitate attacks against political figures and soldiers and even tried to assassinate Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre.
Fahad also revealed how Mahad was involved in the kidnapping of Ikram Tahlil, a young NISA intelligence officer in June 2021 and her handover to Mahad Karatay, Salaad’s cousin and leader of Al-Shabab’s intelligence.
The list of criticisms leveled at Mahad is long, but so far the president has not aroused public concern and has kept him in his post against all odds. The president not only shielded him from all charges, but sent him after public officials who refused to switch to the opposition camp during his hate-filled election campaign.
The president and Mahad are notably suspected of being behind the assassination of Farhan Qarole, the Mogadishu police chief. Early in his term, the president gave the green light to Mahad to purge from government institutions officials still loyal to the previous administration and shifted to unleash him on dissenting voices, in the media and in the regions.
Last June, during a visit to the spy agency’s headquarters, Mohamed Ahmed “Doodishe”, the Internal Security Minister, under whom the agency reports, made it clear that NISA agents could no longer continue to ignore the guidelines set by the law governing the agency. The minister quickly lost his post and has not been replaced to this day.
The rift between the spymaster and the president
The honeymoon between the two came to an end once the president had been confirmed in his position and no serious opposition stood in his way. Now, all the accusations and suspicions against Mahad have piled up to the point where his increasing blunders and involvement in numerous attacks have become indefensible to the president.
This month alone, the Al-Shabab attack on the SYL Hotel on March 14, which caused the death of 3 police officers, and the revelation ten days later that NISA agents had facilitated it, showed the dysfunction of the agency. Especially since it was the second time after the attack on the Hotel Villa Rose in 2022 that an attack had occurred so close to Villa Somalia, the presidential palace.
Added to this, the killing of civilians by Turkish drones two weeks ago, who had been misled by NISA, reinforced the pressure from foreign organizations on the President to change the direction of the agency. Whereas under Farhad Yasin, NISA’s intelligence was highly sought after by foreign partners, under Mahad’s leadership, the agency has been unreliable and even amateurish.
In short, despite documented abuse by NISA agents, most of them newly recruited from Mahad’s sub-clan, and complaints piling up from everywhere, the spymaster lasted as long he was useful to the president.
The president’s shifting political interests
On April 4, Mahad Salaad was replaced by sitting MP Abdullahi Mohamed “Sanbalolshe”, a man who has previously served twice as head of NISA. He was first appointed in 2014 by President Mohamud during his first term, then replaced after just 50 days. Sanbalolshe was reappointed by President Farmaajo in 2017, before being replaced by Fahad Yasin in 2018.
The man himself is not without controversy. After his second appointment as director of NISA, he became embroiled in the scandal surrounding the rendition of Abdikarim Qalbidhagax to the Ethiopian authorities. Qalbidhagax, a hero of the 1977 liberation war, was also a veteran of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).
His alignment with Ethiopian interests in Somalia and his lying to the President that Qalbidhagax had voluntarily surrendered to the Ethiopians led to his disgrace.
After apologizing to Qalbidhagax, who was tortured and detained in an Ethiopian prison, he launched a smear campaign against Farmaajo and sided with the clannish opposition led by Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, with whom he shares the same clan.
Sanbalolshe’s return to the spy agency is the result of the President’s opportunistic approach: while he wants to instill confidence in foreign security partners, he also sees in him an ally whose sub-clan is in the midst of a rebellion in the Hiiran region.
Indeed, in conflict with almost all the regional states, President Mohamud has his eye on the regions dominated by his clan. It’s no secret that he wants to replace Qoorqoor with Salaad as head of the Galmudug regional state.
With Sanbalolshe, it’s not just a question of keeping Hirshabelle united, now that the rebel Hiiran region wants to break away, but also of replacing Hirshabelle president Ali Gudlaawe with Sanbalolshe, in all likelihood. Both Qoorqoor and Gudlaawe were installed by Farmaajo.
