Over 100 arrested in Somalia security sweep

Somalia’s security forces have executed an operation in northern Mogadishu, imprisoning several criminal suspects since yesterday, Garowe Online reported.

The security sweep comes after a Somali soldier was killed on duty at a checkpoint near the Towfiq Hotel junction earlier this week. According to Garowe Online, “most” of the detainees have been released, apart from those who have been found to have links with the Al-Shabaab group.

Somalia’s security forces believe that an Al-Shabaab fighter is responsible for the killing of the Somali soldier, although there is no evidence to back up the claims. The group have not claimed responsibility for the killing on its open source networks.

Mogadishu has seen some ferocious attacks, including suicide bombings, improvised explosive device attacks and drive-by shootings at security check points. Civilians are almost always the prime target of strikes, with last year seeing some 500 killed and injured in a double truck bomb attack. The assailant, though, was not from Al-Shabaab according to an investigation by the Guardian, but was a former Somali soldier grieved by a US and Somali counter-terror raid on his home village.

Al-Shabaab pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda in 2012, which led to an increase in counter-terror measures levied by the US. This includes the controversial drone strikes, which has killed some 713 people since 2007, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

An annual corruption rating study published by Transparency International revealed that Somalia is one of the worst performing countries across the globe. The country suffers from “weak” public institutions and instability which makes it easy for fraud to take place.

Last week President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo echoed the study by telling his government for the first time that “it’s undeniable that there is corruption in the government committed by some of us”.

In the midst of the ongoing attacks and terrorism violence, the African Union Mission in Somalia is seeking to rescind its footprint. Some 1,000 troops have already left Somalia, while it is doubtful whether Somalia is capable to take on the sole responsibility for its security.

A regiment of 85 British Special Forces have been deployed in Somalia since last year to assist Somali forces. Additionally, the US has some 500 personnel stationed in Somalia, including a unit that fights alongside Somali forces.

Somalia has been unstable politically and in terms of its security for more than a decade due to internal political competition over governance.

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