MOGADISHU, Somalia – When a photo was released showing two men suspected of links to al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-linked militant group, it raised some eyebrows. One of them, Abdullahi Ahmed Hassan, was a First Lieutenant in the Somali National Army (SNA). Despite his rank, Hassan had been secretly working as a mole for the group.
Hassan was detained in Mogadishu, a month after a police officer reportedly defected to al-Shabaab following the arrest of two militants in the capital.
Two men, Sakariye (son of senior al-Shabaab figure Said Abdullahi Sulsul) and a SNA officer, Abdullahi Ahmed Hassan, have been arrested in connection with al-Shabaab. They’ve been accused of acting as informants for the group.
Sakariye’s arrest has drawn attention because of his father’s influential role in al-Shabaab, while Hassan is facing charges for allegedly backing the organization.
The fact that al-Shabaab was able to recruit an active-duty officer as a spy highlights just how serious and sophisticated the group’s efforts are to undermine Somalia’s already fragile security and weaken the government from within.
Earlier this year, a shooting at a military training camp in Mogadishu left four military trainers dead—three from the UAE and one from Bahrain. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility, saying the attack was carried out by Mustaf Mukhtar Aden, a 27-year-old soldier they had planted as a mole.
One example is Ayanle Mohamed Ali, a police officer who reportedly defected to al-Shabaab last year. Before he defected, Ali had been an active member of the Police Force in Mogadishu, underscoring the government’s ongoing struggle to keep loyalty in the face of the group’s influence and intimidation.
In November last year, 11 officials from Hodan District in Mogadishu were put on trial for allegedly working with al-Shabaab. The group, which included eight men and three women, is accused of aiding the militants behind the deadly Zobe Two bombing.
There’s growing concern about just how much al-Shabaab has infiltrated the very institutions meant to fight them. Critics are now questioning whether the military is capable of pushing back against the group’s growing influence.
Since his re-election in May 2022, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has led an all-out offensive against al-Shabaab, pushing them out of several towns in southern and central Somalia. Initially, it seemed he had cleared out al-Shabaab’s moles from the government, but it now appears the group is still operating behind the scenes. In the past, this mole network was so successful that it helped the group kill the mayor of Mogadishu.
The most damaging infiltration occurred when senior intelligence official Abdisalam Mohamed Hassan was caught passing sensitive information to al-Shabaab, earning a life sentence. In 2016, airport security chief Abdiweli Mohamed Maow was convicted for smuggling a laptop bomb onto a plane. Then, in 2019, Mogadishu Mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman was killed in a suicide explosion carried out by his own aides, revealing how deeply al-Shabaab had infiltrated the government.
Al-Shabaab’s deepening influence within Somalia’s military and police forces has raised serious concerns. While no one knows exactly how many moles they have, the group has effectively flushed out those against them, while staying undetected within the government.
