Fahad Yasin Haji Dahir

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Fahad Yasin Haji Dahir
Fahad Yasin Haji Dahir
National Security Advisor
to the President
Assumed office
8 September 2021
PresidentMohamed Abdullahi Mohamed
Preceded byAbdisaid Musi Ali
Director General of the
National Intelligence and Security Agency
In office
22 August 2019 – 8 September 2021
Prime MinisterMohamed Hussein Roble,
Hassan Ali Khaire
Deputy to the Director Director General
of the
National Intelligence and Security Agency
In office
16 August 2018 – 22 August 2019
Prime MinisterHassan Ali Khaire
Chief of Staff,
Villa Somalia
In office
31 May 2017 – 16 August 2018
PresidentMohamed Abdullahi Mohamed
Personal details
Born (1978-07-19) July 19, 1978 (age 43)
NationalitySomali
Occupationcivil servant,
election campaign manager,
journalist

Fahad Yasin Haji Dahir, (aka Mr. Fix It)[1] is a Somali journalist and civil servant. He was also the campaign manager for Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed in 2017 elections. After the elections he was appointed Chief of Staff for Villa Somalia and then Director General of the National Intelligence and Security Agency.[2][3][4] Mohamed subsequently appointed him as his National Security Advisor.

Background[]

Yasin is a Salafist[5] from a strictly religious Somali family.[6] According to his passports he was born on 19 July 1978 in Mandera, Kenya, but his Somali ID card indicates that he was born in Mesha Dhalashada, Somalia.[6] He hails from the noble sheekhaal Reer aw Xassan sub clan of Hawiye.[7]

Yasin's parents divorced when he was four years old and his mother later married Abdulkadir Gardheere, who was of the Marehan clan. Gardheere was killed in 1997 by Ethiopian forces fighting in Beled Hawo.[8] In the 1990's Yasin was living in in Kenya for several years.[9] During this time he served as an imam in Abu Dujana mosque. He is said to have furthered his religious studies at El Iman University in Yemen[10] and in Pakistan.[11]

Both Yasin and his step-father[8] were members of the organization Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya,[12][13] an organization which was affiliated with Al-Qaeda and was based in Somalia.[14] According to Garowe Online Yasin participated in battles in the 1990's in Gedo, Arare and Bosaso,[15] but 'he was not a fighting soldier' according to BBC sources.[11]

Career in Journalism[]

Fahad Yasin reporting in Somalia

In the early 2000's he began writing for SomaliTalk,[16][17] a website which was then owned by Al-itihaad al Islamiya. Yasin was a critic of both the Abdiqasim and the Abdullahi Yusuf Transitional Federal Governments. At one point he interviewed TFG President Abdi Qasim Salad Hassan.

Yasin worked for Wadah Khanfar, the chief editor for Al Jazeera, as a religious tutor to his children,[8] before returning to Mogadishu to work as a journalist for Al Jazeera Arabic from 2005 to 2011. He interviewed Sheikh Hassan Turki, the leader of Ras Kamboni.[11] In 2014 he joined Jazeera Research Center.[18][19]

Election campaign manager[]

Yasin is said by some commentators to be involved in helping to get Hassan Sheikh Mohamud elected as the President of Somalia in the 2012 Somali presidential election, by securing money from Qatar that allowed him to buy enough votes for victory.[20][21][22] He rejected an appointment to the position of Minister of Ports and Marine Transport, on 27 January 2015 by Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke.[23]

Yasin successfully led the election campaign for Mohamed in the 2017 presidential election.[11]

Somali Civil service[]

Chief of Staff at Villa Somalia[]

After winning the elections, Mohamed appointed Yasin to the position of the Chief of Staff for Villa Somalia on 31 May 2017.[24]

NISA[]

Mohamed appointed Yasin as deputy director of the National Intelligence and Security Agency on 16 August 2018, during a reshuffling of his security chiefs.[25] Yasin served as the acting head of the agency during ten months of his tenure. After the assassination of Abdirahman Omar Osman, the Mayor of Mogadishu, Farmaajo appointed Yasin as head of NISA on 22 August 2019.[26]

According to Garowe Online Yasin was one of the main co-ordinators behind the top-secret deployment of around 5,000 Somali military recruits to Eritrea, some of whom are said to have been sent to on to Ethiopia to fight in the Tigray war, according to a UN report. The recruits themselves were falsely told that they were going for training in Qatar, and their families began a campaign for information as to their whereabouts, after over a year of no contact from them.[27]

In April 2021, Yasin travelled to Ethiopia to request Ethiopian National Defence Force troop be deployed to Mogadishu, but Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed refused the request.[28]

On 6 September 2021, Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble suspended Yasin over a matter relating to the murder of , a NISA officer.[29] However, soon after Yasin's dismissal, Mohamed published a statement claiming the prime minister's actions to be unconstitutional, saying that Yasin should continue as the head of NISA.[29] Ikran's mother subsequently filed charges against Yasin for 'orchestrating murder' at the Somali military court.[30] On 8 September 2021, Villa Somalia announced that Yasin had resigned as head of NISA.[31]

National Security Advisor to the President[]

Fahad Yasin Haji Dahir

After Yasin's resignation from NISA, Mohamed immediately appointed him as his National Security Advisor.[31]

The office of Somalia's President on 17 September 2021, accused the government of Djibouti of illegally detaining his new National Security Advisor, Yasin.[32] He was flying to Mogadishu from Turkey with a stop in Djibouti.[33] It emerged that Somali government officials had ordered that he be barred from traveling aboard any commercial airliner, due to which he was briefly detained in Djibouti and returned to Somalia aboard a private plane on 21 September 2021.[34]

References[]

  1. ^ "Somalia's Spy Chief and Deputy Chief of Staff in trouble over radio raid". Garowe Online. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  2. ^ "Somalia's intelligence chief worked with an al Qaeda affiliate, so why do we fund him?". American Enterprise Institute - AEI. Retrieved 2021-09-06.
  3. ^ "SOMALIA : Deputy intelligence director Fahad Yasin is UN sub-contractor in fight against Al Shabaab - 01/07/2019". Africa Intelligence. 2019-07-01. Retrieved 2021-09-06.
  4. ^ "Somali premier suspends intelligence chief; president objects". news.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2021-09-06.
  5. ^ "Battle lines in the capital". www.africa-confidential.com. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  6. ^ a b pm, Paul Kurgat on 8 September 2021-3:22. "How Spy With Kenyan ID Rose to Become Minister in a Foreign Country". Kenyans.co.ke. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  7. ^ "Testing time for elections". www.africa-confidential.com. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  8. ^ a b c "Somalia's intelligence chief worked with an al Qaeda affiliate, so why do we fund him?". Somali Times. 2020-11-16. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  9. ^ Rubin, Michael (2020-11-12). "Judge Countries by their Intelligence Chiefs, Not Diplomats". The National Interest. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
  10. ^ Bryden, Matt (2021-11-08). "MATT BRYDEN - Fake Fight: The Quiet Jihadist Takeover of Somalia | The Elephant". Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  11. ^ a b c d "Fahad Yaasiin: Taliyaha awoodda badan ee aan wax badan laga ogeyn". BBC News Somali (in Somali). Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  12. ^ Cannon, Brendon J. "Foreign State Influence and Somalia\u27s 2017 Presidential Election: An Analysis". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. ^ GFC Political Analysis Unit. "Cold War in Somalia (Gulf States Game: Security and Influence)" (PDF). Gulf Futures Centre.
  14. ^ "Somalia's intelligence chief worked with an al Qaeda affiliate, so why do we fund him?". American Enterprise Institute - AEI. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
  15. ^ "Somalia: Confidential report warns against former Islamist's close ties with president". Garowe Online. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  16. ^ "Somalitalk.com Online Community:". www.somaliatalk.com. Retrieved 2021-10-01.
  17. ^ "Somalitalk.com Online Community:". www.somaliatalk.com. Retrieved 2021-10-01.
  18. ^ Ali, Abdullahi Mohamed (2020-06-22). "Somalia Must Save Itself from Qatar". The National Interest. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  19. ^ "Fahad Yasiin". Al Jazeera Center for Studies. Retrieved 2021-10-01.
  20. ^ J. Cannon, Brendon (2018). "Foreign State Influence and Somalia's 2017 Presidential Election: An Analysis". Bildhaan. 18. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
  21. ^ Rubin, Michael (16 November 2020). "Somalia's intelligence chief worked with an al Qaeda affiliate, so why do we fund him?". Washington Examiner. American Enterprise Institute. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
  22. ^ "WardheerNews Person of the Year 2017: Fahad Yasin". WardheerNews. 6 January 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
  23. ^ "Nominated Ministers and Their Clans". Goobjoog. 28 January 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  24. ^ "Fahad Yassin Is the New Chief of Staff at Villa Somalia". Goobjoog News English. 2017-06-01. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  25. ^ "Somalia: Farmajo Shakes Security Chiefs to Rump Up War On Al-Shabaab". Shabelle Media Network. AllAfrica. 2018-08-16. Retrieved 2021-09-29.
  26. ^ Sheikh, Abdi; Holland, Hereward (2019-08-22). Drummond, James (ed.). "Somali president replaces security chiefs and Mogadishu mayor". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-09-29.
  27. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: Top officials behind missing soldiers in Eritrea exposed". Garowe Online. Retrieved 2021-12-15.
  28. ^ "Abiy Ahmed rejects Fahad Yasin's request for deployment of ENDF to Somalia". Garowe Online. Retrieved 2021-12-15.
  29. ^ a b "Somali premier suspends intelligence chief; president objects". Reuters. 2021-09-06. Retrieved 2021-09-06.
  30. ^ "Somalia: Farmaajo and PM Roble fail to strike deal in first meeting at Villa Somalia". Garowe Online. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
  31. ^ a b "Farmaajo changes tune, appoints another spy chief as PM Roble accuses him of sabotage". Garowe Online. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  32. ^ Sheikh, Abdi; Hassan, Abdiqani; Miriri, Duncan (20 September 2021). Maclean, William (ed.). "Somalia's president berates Djibouti for detaining his security adviser". Reuters. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  33. ^ "Somalia Blasts Djibouti Over 'Unlawful Detention' of National Security Adviser". VOA. Retrieved 2021-10-01.
  34. ^ "Somalia: Fahad Yasin arrives in Mogadishu aboard private jet". GaroweOnline. 21 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
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