Somalia PM Suspends Intelligence Chief, Prompting Rebuke from President

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA - Somalia's prime minister suspended the intelligence chief on Monday, prompting a public rebuke from the president and highlighting growing divisions at the heart of the political elite.

Analysts said the suspension - triggered by a dispute over investigations into an unsolved murder - pointed to a deeper power struggle that could further destabilize a country already riven by militant attacks and clan rivalries. Prime Minister Mohammed Hussein Roble said he had told Fahad Yasin, the director of Somalia's National Intelligence Service Agency (NISA), to step aside for failing to deliver a report on the murder of one of the agency's agents. Soon after, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed issued his own statement calling the prime minister's move unconstitutional. "(Yasin) should continue being the director of NISA," the president said.