Mogadishu (PP News Desk) — Hiraal Institute, a Mogadishu-based think tank, is facing threats from the National Security Office based in Villa Somalia to force the organisation stop publishing reports on counterterrorism operations against Al-shabaab.
The latest report of Hiraal Institute discussed institutional failures that prevent government forces from controlling territories liberated from Al-shabaab in addition to lop-sided strategy that caused one clan to lose more than 700 civilian fighters known as Macawisley.
“After we published our last two papers, I was called and told by the National Security Office head [ Hussein Sheikh-Ali aka Hussein Moallim, the British-Somali National Security Adviser] that publishing such things would be ‘dangerous’ for me. He went on to say that because he was once a member of the organisation, we should give him money as well or he would block us from working. He has no such power, and has no legal or any sort of membership in Hiraal Institute. He resigned on 22 March 2022, before being appointed as the National Security Adviser” M. Mubarak, the founder and Chairman of Hiraal Institute told Puntland Post.
Hussein was the Chairman of Hiraal Executive team, a job he had taken up after the former Somali Federal Government fired him as a National Security Adviser whose counterterrorism strategy was deemed to have lacked an analytical depth. Hussein single-handedly formulated the strategy to mobilise untrained militias against Al-shabaab.
“Hussein was once an employee of Hiraal Institute. It is unfortunate that he is now muzzling the very think tank that had given him an opportunity to boost his counterterrorism career. Hiraal Institute is not a cheerleader. It is commendable for scrutinising counterterrorism policy of the Federal Government of Somalia” said a journalist in Mogadishu.
© Puntland Post, 2023
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