UPDATE: Intel and Police chiefs kicked out following twin October attacks

Intelligence chief Abdullahi Mohamed Sanbalooshe and head of police Abdihakim Dahir Sa’id were sacked following recommendations of the Security Minister in light of Saturday attack and the October 14 truck bombing which both claimed upwards of 430 lives.

The duo who were appointed April 6 this year following a major shake-up in the security sector by President Mohamed Farmaajo after a series of Al-Shabaab attacks were kicked out Sunday during an emergency cabinet meeting.

Twin attacks rocked Nasa Hablood II restaurant in Mogadishu Saturday afternoon and spiraled not a night long hostage crisis culminating into the death if another 23 lives and left more than 30 others injured.

A statement from the cabinet noted the ministers adopted recommendations from Internal Security Minister Mohamed Abukar Islow. The minister’s recommendations are based on the Saturday attack which the government put the figure at 27 and the October 14 truck bombing which claimed more than 400 lives.

“The security minister requested from the cabinet ministers the sacking of the police commander and the NISA chief spy so that accountability can be attained. After a lengthy debate, the cabinet ministers voted to fire head of police Abdihakim Dahir Sa’id and NISA chief Abdullahi Mohamed Ali (Sanbalooshe),” the statement read.

Sanbalooshe’s exit comes barely four days after he accused western governments and intelligence agencies of failing to support his agency and holding on to crucial intelligence material from scenes of attack.

In a hard hitting Op-Ed in the New York Times Thursday, Sanbalooshe painted a picture of an agency grappling in the dark on its own to prevent another attack like the October 14 truck bombing in Mogadishu while western agencies run away with crucial intelligence material and flatly refuse to share with their Somali counterparts.

“We have been operating almost completely blind. International partners offered to provide “technical assistance,” but their good intentions served to blind us even more: the evidence gathered from bombing scenes is handled and removed by foreign “mentors” who treat intelligence as a commodity rather than as a shared asset in our battle against a common enemy,” Sanbalooshe said.

This becomes Sanbalooshe’s second exit from the spy agency after a similar one in 2014. He was appointed to head the agency July 9, 2014 and was kicked out barely two months into office in September 7 the same year. Sai’d was also fired in July 2014 after Al-Shabaab attack at the presidential palace.

President Farmaajo recalled Sanbalooshe from the UK where he served as ambassador April 6 for the same job.