Somalia’s spy agency NISA and the Office of the National Security Advisor have both directed responsibility and blame to actors outside the country over the deadly Ex-Control truck bombing as the opposition warns such a move amounts to ‘cooperation with Al-Shabaab.’
The National Security Advisor Abdisaid Ali, who has in the wake of such attacks before taken to Twitter to blame the UN Security Council for the three decades long arms embargo fired the first salvo Sunday evening. as al-Shabaab will sleep comfortably knowing that sophisticated weaponry and military equipment is not within our reach and we are unable to respond to them in a way that brings justice to the victims and their families of this heinous attack,” Ali said.
Noting the arms restrictions was the ‘most unfair arms embargo imposed on a sovereign state’, Ali said it restricted Somali forces to ‘get the capacity to detect, penetrate and disrupt the current terrorist networks operating in Somalia and ability to use superior firepower to destroy AS bomb-making factories.’
FOREIGN NATION INVOLVED
Hours later, following Ali’s sentiments, the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) delivered a shocker to those who were quick to the direct blame on the usual suspects-Al-Shabaab. “We have submitted our preliminary report, which shows a foreign nation was behind the Ex-Control attack,” the agency said in a tweet Monday afternoon.
“For the NISA to claim that a foreign country was behind the ex-control Afgoye attack, in which Al-Shabaab terrorist massacred 120 people, doesn’t only mislead the public & cover up the agency’s failure, but it also diverts blame from the terrorist. This is a clear cooperation with AS,” Abdishakur said.
The UN Monitoring Group and its successor, Panel of Experts have both blamed the office of the National Security Advisor for denying UN monitors access to information on weapons imports and even access to armouries in the country.
In the 2017 report, the Monitoring Group said it was instructed to seek clearance from the Somalia’s Permanent Mission in New York to enter the country by the Office of the National Security. A similar observation appeared in the 2019 report.