Somalia Fires Security Officials After Mogadishu Attack

The Somali government has fired the country's police chief and head of the national security agency, hours after a daring attack by Al-Shabaab militants on the presidential compound in the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday.



Information Minister Mustaf Ali Duhulow told a press conference on Wednesday that Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed named Mohamed Sheikh Ismail as a new police commissioner, replacing Abdihakim Said, and Mohamed Abdullahi Hamud as acting head of the national security agency, replacing Bashir Mohamed Jama.



Khalif Ahmed Ereg, a former national security chief, was also named as the new national security minister, taking over from Abdikarim Hussein Guled who stepped down after a deadly attack on the parliament headquarters last May.



On Tuesday, militants affiliated with Al-Shabaab group attacked the presidential compound. The attack left nine people dead, including five attackers.



Somalia, a long-troubled Horn of Africa country, has remained in the grip of violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.



The battered country had appeared to inch closer to stability with the intervention of African Union troops tasked with combatting Al-Shabaab.



By Nour Geidi



englishnews@aa.com.tr



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