Mogadishu (Commentary) — On his X platform (formerly Twitter) handle, Hussein Sheikh-Ali describes himself as “Twice Former National Security Adviser of Somalia”. No sooner had he been sacked as the National Security Adviser last year than he founded saldhig.org “to produce high-quality, policy-relevant analysis regarding security, governance, and geopolitical developments impacting Somalia and its strategic environment”.
Details that saldhig.org is the new name of the Hiraal Institute have been deleted from the website, as have the names of executive members. The new report by Saldhig, entitled The Strategic Nexus Between Al-Shabaab and the Houthis and its Implications for the Region and Global Security, mentions Puntland three times to argue that a certain Hassan Ahmed-Al-Kahlaani “Abu Sahiid” is in charge of “Al-Shabaab’s military, intelligence, financial and political files in Puntland”, and that Mohamed Nur Jamaac is the head of Jabha in Puntland. Jabha means “front”, but nowhere in the report is the word clarified.
The report follows a long-standing disinformation pattern of the Hiraal Institute’s campaign against Puntland State of Somalia. It contains unsubstantiated reports, for example the reference to an “Al-Shabaab Commander in Puntland” who claimed that “weaponry … [including] assault rifles, heavy machine guns, grenades, landmines, components for improvised explosive devices, light mortars and rocket-propelled grenades … have consistently been transported … to the northern, eastern, and southern shores of Somalia by small boats from Yemeni ports, including Hodeidah, Al-Mukha, and Ras Issa …”.
Puntland State of Somalia has ably degraded the capabilities of Al-Shabaab. Puntland is now finalising the second stage of a 14-month-long counter-terrorism operation against Daesh (the Islamic State of Somalia).
Hussein Sheikh-Ali has violated the norms and regulations expected of a former National Security Adviser. He was reappointed in 2022 by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as National Security Adviser before being sacked in 2025.
The Federal Government of Somalia has not commented on the new report by Saldhig, founded by Hussein, who has decided to include the Saldhig website in his X platform handle. The main purpose of the report is to blemish the hard-won victories of Puntland State of Somalia against Daesh, a terrorist organisation that was planning to establish its largest hideouts in the Calmiskaad mountain range.
The writer of the article was a senior counterterrorism adviser at the Office of the National Security in Mogadishu between 2022 and 2024.
© Puntland Post, 2026