Somalia on Thursday named a new military supreme commander, a deputy head of intelligence services and ahead of presidential security as part of a revamp of security forces to better tackle the militant threat.
Diplomats worry that without strong, corruption-free security forces, Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab militants could be reinvigorated, destabilising the region and offering a safe haven to other extremist groups including Daesh.
State-run radio said President Mohamed Abdullahi had appointed Dahir Adan Ilmi as the commander of the Somali National Army, Fahad Yasin as deputy director of the National Intelligence Security Agency.
No reason was given for the changes. But the Horn of Africa country has been striving to overhaul its security forces, especially the army, that have drawn accusations of corruption from Somalia’s international donors.
Last year, the United States suspended food and fuel aid for most of Somalia’s armed forces for alleged graft in frustration at the failure of successive Somali governments to build a viable national army.
State-run radio said Abdullahi had also appointed Amina Saiid Ali as the director of presidential security. She will be the first woman to hold the position.
Somalia has suffered from lawlessness and armed conflict since 1991. Al Shabaab is fighting to oust the Western-backed central government in Mogadishu, which is protected by African Union peacekeepers, and install a government based on its strict interpretation of religious law.
The militants have killed thousands of Somalis and hundreds of civilians across East Africa in a decade-longinsurgency.
Somalia should accelerate reforms of its army, its main foreign backers said on after discussing slow progress in transforming the graft-ridden force into one capable of fighting Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab militants.
The statement from a donor summit in Brussels urged Somalia to work faster to address problems identified in a report last year by the government, the United Nations and the African Union (AU).
That report called the Somali National Army (SNA) a “fragile force with extremely weak command and control,” and comes as AU peacekeepers prepare for their departure in 2020, leaving the local military in charge of Somalia’s security.