Hiiraan Online
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Mogadishu's police Ali Hersi Barre speaks during a press conference in Mogadishu on April 2015
MOGADISHU (HOL) – Mogadishu’s police chief has resigned Tuesday as the country gears up for presidential election due later this year.
Gen. Ali Hersi Barre gave no reason for his resignation; however, Somali officials told HOL that his resignation comes amid an internal strife among the city’s security hierarchy.
Mr. Barre who once served as the country’s traffic police chief was tasked with the city’s security at a time the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approaches during which the Al-Qaeda linked Al Shabab group often steps up attacks against Somali government and African Union forces.
Concerns about security are being raised ahead of the election which would mark the second election to be in the horn of Africa since the ouster of Islamist insurgents from the capital and surrounding regions as the militant group may try to disrupt the elections.
On Sunday, Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud used an executive order to override the parliament which repeatedly delayed the vote process submitted by the government last month and called for timely elections in Somalia.
In addition, the country’s international partners have welcomed Mr. Mohamud’s decree which bypassed the parliament, saying that the decision was taken “in accordance with the repeated commitments of the Federal Government, the Federal Parliament, the National Leadership Forum and other key actors and institutions that there should be no extension of the constitutionally mandated term limits of the legislature and the executive”.
According to Somalia’s Provisional Federal Constitution, adopted in 2012, the mandates of the Somali Federal Parliament and of the government would come to an end in August and September 2016, respectively.
The international community which is spearheading efforts aimed at restoring peace and order into the Somalia which is recovering from decades of war mandated the current government to lead the country into general elections following the election of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, a new parliament and the adoption of a new constitution in 2012.