Nairobi News

Mahad Salad, Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) director celebrates his first anniversary in office with a number of gains that include professionalizing the outfit that has its hands full in aiding maintain law and order in the country.

Mahad has invented a new leadership style that paves the way to consolidate the power of the agency and ensure the security of the nation.

Importantly, NISA and Mahad have been vital in the fight against terrorist group al Shabab, considered the country’s main threat to stability and economic stability.

Further, the gains in the war against the Khawarij is a testimony of how the spy agency is capable and in the battlefield.

Terrorist Extortion Money

After Somali President Hassan Mohamoud announced a three dimensional war against the al Shabab terror group, the spy chief and his team succeeded in the total shut down of Khawarij financial network within a short period of time.

Subsequently, the security agency managed to close the chain of  extortion money imposed by terrorists to the Somali people.

NISA has also frozen multi million dollars of al Shabab bank accounts, not only for that, they took over a terrorist outpost where business people gather to collect their extortion money.

Counter terrorism Operations

NISA has also prioritized hunting down terrorist leaders wherever they are, and traced notorious members who have worked the terrorist multi faces to camouflage the people.

Over 40 successful operations have been conducted in the past year and leading to the death of 2000 al Shabab militants in different counter offensive operation carried out in several areas around Somalia including Middle Shabelle, Lower Shabelle, Hiiran, Bay, Galgadud, Mudug and Bakol.

Besides, NISA has managed to smoke out the terrorist training grounds, financial outposts, ammunition stockpile, terrorist senior official homes, vehicles borne explosive and other key infrastructures.

The success of the Somali people and the National Army in the war against al-Shabaab was based on the strengthened Somali Intelligence which made it easy for them to regularly receive information from Al-Shabaab areas.

The foreign relation

Under the leadership of Mahad Salad, NISA has established a good relation based on mutual interest with its counterpart in neighbors and beyond, and has information sharing encountering terrorist groups, and this NISA benefited to get further information from its counterpart spy agencies.

For the first time in three decades, he opened up a new way of direct cooperation between the spy agencies Somalia and the United States.

Mahad Salad last week visited Washington and New York to meet US officials from the Pentagon, CIA and FBI, according to a source familiar with the visit who did not want to be identified as they are not authorized to speak to the media.

The talks focused on security and counterterrorism cooperation between the two countries, the source noted.