Somalia PM Suspends Intelligence Chief, Prompting Rebuke from President
Voice of America
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA - Somalia's prime minister suspended the intelligence chief on Monday, prompting a public rebuke from the president and highlighting growing divisions at the heart of the political elite.
Analysts said the suspension - triggered by a dispute over investigations into an unsolved murder - pointed to a deeper power struggle that could further destabilize a country already riven by militant attacks and clan rivalries. Prime Minister Mohammed Hussein Roble said he had told Fahad Yasin, the director of Somalia's National Intelligence Service Agency (NISA), to step aside for failing to deliver a report on the murder of one of the agency's agents. Soon after, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed issued his own statement calling the prime minister's move unconstitutional. "(Yasin) should continue being the director of NISA," the president said.Hindu devotees pray during the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, India, Jan. 29, 2025. A volunteer helps people to look for their valuables after a stampede when Hindu devotees rushed to take a holy bath during the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, India, Jan. 29, 2025. An injured girl reacts as she is being treated at a hospital after a stampede at the Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Jan. 29, 2025
An AI robot moves past an office information board showing the DeepSeek smartphone apps company in Beijing, Jan. 28, 2025. China has been using Google's artificial intelligence-enabled Gemini chatbot to supercharge cyberattacks against U.S. targets. FILE - Screenshot of the warning screen from a purported ransomware attack, as captured by a computer user in Taiwan, is seen on a laptop in Beijing, May 13, 2017.
M23 rebels patrol the streets of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Jan. 29, 2025. Members of the Congolese Red Cross gather the bodies of victims from the recent clashes at the morgue of the Provincial Hospital of North Kivu in Goma on Jan. 29, 2025. Residents swim while carrying their jerrycans as they gather to collect water amid ongoing water shortages at the shore of Lake Kivu in Goma, Jan. 29, 2025. A man collects files next to the wreckage of burned vehicles at the Rwandan Embassy a day after an attack on the building during a demonstration against the escalating conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in Kinshasa, on Jan. 29, 2025.
A dancer prepares for a lion dance performance at the Ditan Park Temple Fair in Beijing on Jan. 29, 2025, on the first day of the Lunar Year of the Snake. People pray at the Quan Su Pagoda in Hanoi on Jan. 29, 2025, the Lunar New Year, known in Vietnam as Tet. Participants perform a dragon dance during the celebration on the eve of the Lunar New Year, in Moscow, Russia, on Jan. 28, 2025.
FILE - Somali security forces patrol for militant groups in Puntland, northeastern Somalia, Dec. 18, 2016. For much of January 2025, forces have been advancing on Islamic State hideouts in the region. FILE - A man looks at a computer screen displaying an image of Somali-born cleric and Islamic State-Somalia leader Abdulkadir Mumin, in Nairobi, Kenya, Sept. 1, 2016.
Palestinians walk through buildings that were destroyed by the Israeli air and ground offensive are seen at the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza Strip, Jan. 28, 2025. FILE - President Donald Trump listens to Steve Witkoff speak during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida.