Farmaajo to chair Security Council meeting today ahead of Shabaab offensive

President Mohamed Farmaajo and state leaders are meeting today in Mogadishu under the auspices of the National Security Council expected to craft a coordinated strategy ahead of an offensive against Al-Shabaab in the wake of the October 14 deadly terror attack in Mogadishu which claimed over 300 lives.

President Farmaajo concluded a whirlwind tour of three troops contributing countries-Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti Thursday and announced he had secured the commitments from these countries for enhanced support. Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni said Friday he would be willing to send an extra 5,000 troops.

Uganda is currently the largest troops contributor to Amisom with 6,200 troops and police teams.

Today’s meeting could mark a major step in pre-offensive consultations with leaders from the regions expected to brief the president on the amount and nature of support they can provide from their security forces.

Farmaajo has blamed the militant group Al-Shabaab for the Mogadishu truck bomb attack but the group has remained silent over it. A joint meeting of the national army leadership, police, UN and Amisom chiefs Wednesday agreed to a coordinated response.

“We have of course agreed on some measures which I cannot elaborate here but which will ensure that we deny the enemy (Al-Shabaab) freedom of organization and freedom of action. Those measures are much more elaborate and they are going to be elaborated on more as we go by,” said Amisom deputy head Simon Mulongo said.

But the remarks from Somali intelligence chief Abdullahi Sanbalooshe Thursday raises key questions in regards to coordination between Somali security forces and international partners. In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Sanbalooshe lamented of a disjointed manner in which intelligence gathering is conducted by western intelligence agencies noting the latter do not share crucial intelligence with his team.

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Sanbalooshe also questioned the US, Britain and UN’s willingness to help Somalia overcome the scourge of terror observing they have not been forthcoming in offering support.

Today’s meeting follows a series of fall-outs between the states and Mogadishu running from the Gulf Crisis differences where majority of the states broke ranks with the Federal Government to side with Saudi Arabia despite Mogadishu’s neutral stand.

The two levels of governments have also sharply differed over what the states said is systematic attempt by President Farmaajo’s administration to frustrate and dethrone state leaders.