Qatar’s support to the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) has increased rumored reports of possible links with Al-Shabaab.
In the last one year, Fahad Yasin, the Director of NISA, has been accused of providing Al-Shabaab with intelligence.
Further, the reports allege that the militants have used the intelligence to launch attacks against peacekeeping mission troops operating in the country.
Yasin remains one of President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo’s most trusted allies.
Multiple sources indicate that Qatar used him to get two former spy chiefs thrown out of office.
First, Qatar reportedly used him to get Abdalla Abdalla, the then Deputy Head of Intelligence at NISA, sacked from office.
Later, Qatar reportedly worked with Yasin to remove Hussein Osman, who was the Director of NISA at the time, removed from office too.
Since then, Yasin rose to the pinnacle of the NISA leadership.
A former Director of NISA, Abdullahi Mohamed Ali, stated that reports linking Qatar to Al-Shabaab are “not new.”
In an interview with Al Arabiya, Ali said that Yasin is “Qatar’s main man in Somalia.”
He also mentioned that Qatar is the only nation in the world with “exclusive access” to the militia group with whom it also “enjoys a special relationship.”