Somalia’s First Centralised Intelligence Service Chief Dies Aged 87

[Deeq A.]

Abdalla had read translated summaries of Special Branch reports that hinted at measures intended to curtail Soviet influence within the Somali National Army.

Mogadishu (PP Obituary) — Brigadier Ahmed Suleiman Abdalla (aka Dafle), who passed away earlier this week, was the founding commander of the National Security Service (now the National Intelligence and Security Agency ‘NISA’). Abdalla was born in Togdheer in 1937. He attended Sheikh Secondary School. His contemporaries described him as a quick learner and highly conscientious — two qualities that served him well upon joining the Somali Army and during his training in the United Kingdom.

During the first nine years of the 1960s, when Somalia was experimenting with parliamentary democracy, Abdalla served as an officer in the Somali National Army, at one point being tasked with overseeing military intelligence. Before 1969, he married the daughter of Somali Army Commander Mohamed Siyad Barre, who would later overthrow the last democratically elected Somali government in 1969. Abdalla’s name appeared on the list of junta members that came to be known as the Supreme Revolutionary Council, which seized power on 21 October 1969 in a bloodless coup.

The year 1970 marked a significant milestone for the military regime. It took control of all intelligence reports previously compiled by the former Special Branch, first led by Major General Jama Mohamed Ghalib and later by Colonel Farah Sugulle. Although the Special Branch was primarily tasked with collecting intelligence on foreign threats to the Somali Republic, a substantial number of its reports dealt with “possible” links between some Somali politicians and foreign governments. The seizure of the Special Branch files provided Major General Barre, Chairman of the SRC, with an opportunity to connect the dots between the military intelligence reports he had previously read and the Special Branch files he had not had access to.

Abdalla was appointed to head the National Security Service founded on a presidential decree issued in 1970. He secured the appointment based on a confidential recommendation he had written to the SRC Chairman, proposing the centralisation of the state’s intelligence apparatus. “The compartmentalisation denied political leaders the privilege of knowing more about military intelligence, and left army commanders in the dark about external threats to Somalia,” Abdalla argued, seeking to highlight the risks posed by having separate intelligence services within the regime.

Abdalla with the the late Puntland State President Mohamud Muse Hersi circa 2007.

Abdalla had read translated summaries of Special Branch reports that hinted at measures intended to curtail Soviet influence within the Somali National Army. He was not an Italian-speaking officer.  These reports dated back to 1967, when Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke was elected president. Sharmake appointed Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal as Prime Minister. The Special Branch reports alluded to meetings between Egal and senior members of his government with British and American diplomats, who tied support for the Somali National Army to verifiable reductions in Soviet influence. Sharmarke reportedly balked at suggestions made by Egal to downgrade ties with the Soviet Union, which had played a key role in strengthening Somali military intelligence capabilities.

The abolition of political parties, as proclaimed in the first Charter of the Somali Revolution, was informed by the failure of the last Somali civilian regime, which monopolised power to such an extent that it rendered all political opposition irrelevant. The introduction of a single-list candidate system (una lista unica), which allowed the ruling Somali Youth League to block rival candidates from other parties from contesting seats in constituencies, foreshadowed the one-party rule in Somalia under the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (1976–1991). Misconceived democracy paved the way for military dictatorship.

Abdalla is remembered for transforming the NSS into a professional intelligence service, whose operations benefited from synthesising intelligence reports from both the pre- and post-coup eras, particularly between 1966 and 1975. The National Security Court, headed by the late Mohamud Gelleh Yusuf, used NSS intelligence reports as evidence against so-called “counter-revolutionaries.” Abdalla was known to be anti-communist but did not rock the boat; he understood that President Barre was not a committed communist but used scientific socialism to retain power.

Other intelligence policy innovations introduced by Abdalla included issuing Somali passports to members of the Eritrean Liberation Front and granting refugee status to Ethiopians fleeing the Red Terror under Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam. In the Lower Shabelle region, the NSS ran a centre where officers held monthly meetings with Ethiopian political refugees, some of whom became teachers in private schools in Mogadishu. Unemployed Ethiopian political refugees received allowances and medical care from the Somali state.

The former President of Somalia, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the President of Puntland State, Said Abdullahi Deni, the Chairman of the Somaliland administration Parliament Yasin Haji Mohamud Hiir, the current Director of NISA, Abdullahi Sanbalolshe; and the former NISA Director, Fahad Yasin, all sent their condolences to the family of Brigadier General Ahmed Suleman Abdalla.

© Puntland Post, 2025

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