This archive report was first published on 23 August 2019.
On August 22, 2019, Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo announced a major shake-up of the country's security chiefs and the replacement of the mayor of Mogadishu, Abdirahman Omar Osman, who died in a suicide bomb attack on July 24, 2019.
Al Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the bombing of Osman's office by a blind female fighter.
Abdi Mohamed, a former councillor in London, has taken the place of the late mayor, who had fled Somalia for Britain as a refugee and earned years of experience as a councillor in London before deciding to return home to help rebuild his war-torn country.
President Farmaajo selected new heads of national intelligence, police, and army, including Fahad Yasin, who becomes head of the National Intelligence Security Agency (NISA), and Abdi Hassan Mohamed Hajar, who will head up the police.
