General Sulub Ahmed Firin, who had previously served as the nation’s police commissioner, was chosen by the Somali cabinet council to take General Abdi Hassan Hijar’s place as police commissioner on Thursday.
Since August 2019, General Abdi Hijar, a native of Puntland’s Sool area, has held the role; the newly appointed leader is from Jubbland.
Despite the state-owned media stating that Hijar had been fired, the cabinet has not yet made a formal announcement about the appointment.
General Abdi Hassan Hijar, the police chief, was replaced as security forces in Mogadishu began conducting operations, including a house-to-house hunt for al-Shabab fighters hiding among the civilian populace.
Security professionals and community leaders in Mogadishu have been urging government security services to increase operations in the capital over the past few months in order to stop what they described as “pending al-Shabab terror strikes.”
According to the government of Somalia, five people were slain on Sunday when Islamists with ties to al-Qaida seized control of the Banadir Regional Administration building in Mogadishu.
Even though the federal government declared “total war” on the terrorist group last year, al-Shabab frequently assaults government and civilian targets in Mogadishu.