Mogadishu (Somalia Today) — Somalia’s former intelligence chief, Abdullahi Mohamed Ali Sanbalolshe, has warned that deep mistrust still limits intelligence cooperation between Mogadishu and its international partners.
Sanbalolshe, who has twice served as director of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), said Somalia receives international support, particularly from the United States. However, he argued that intelligence sharing remains limited by fears of infiltration, leaks and weak institutional capacity.
“Information is shared to some extent, but there is no 100 per cent cooperation,” Sanbalolshe said in an interview with Geed Fadhi Podcast.
“Although cooperation is visible in areas such as security warnings and military operations, it has still not reached the level of national self-sufficiency,” he added.
His remarks touch on one of the most sensitive questions in Somalia’s long war with Al-Shabaab: whether the country’s security institutions can be trusted with the most sensitive intelligence while the militant group continues to show an ability to target heavily protected areas.
Trust deficit
Sanbalolshe said foreign intelligence agencies do not fully share information with their Somali counterparts, while Somalia is still building the internal capacity needed to gather, analyse and act on intelligence independently.
He said the problem was not only operational, but structural. Somalia needs major investment in modern intelligence systems, including technology, surveillance capabilities and human intelligence networks, he said.
The concern over infiltration has circulated for years among Somalis, especially after a series of high-profile attacks raised questions over how Al-Shabaab obtained information, moved through checkpoints and reached supposedly secure targets.
In 2019, a female suicide bomber killed Mogadishu mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman and several others after entering the mayor’s office. Somali authorities later said the bomber was a municipal employee, fuelling suspicions that the militants had exploited insider access.
Al-Shabaab has also repeatedly struck hotels, military facilities and government-linked sites close to the centre of power. Militants attacked the Villa Rosa hotel near the presidential palace in 2022 and stormed the SYL Hotel, a popular meeting place for officials and lawmakers, in 2024.
In March 2025, the group targeted President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s convoy with a bomb near Villa Somalia as he travelled toward the airport. The president survived, but the attack deepened public concern over the group’s ability to gather information about sensitive movements.
A more recent attack on the NISA-run Godka Jilacow prison near the president’s office in October 2025 again showed the danger.
Somali forces killed all seven attackers and said no prisoners escaped, but state media reported that the militants used a vehicle disguised to resemble those used by intelligence security forces.
NISA gains
Still, Somalia’s security picture has changed since Hassan Sheikh returned to office in May 2022 and launched a renewed offensive against Al-Shabaab.
Security agencies, including NISA, have made visible gains in Mogadishu.
Major attacks in the capital have dropped considerably compared with earlier years, when several bombings and assaults could take place within a single month. Large attacks now often come months apart, even as the group continues to plot and occasionally carry out deadly operations.
NISA has played a central role in that improvement. The agency has stepped up surveillance, disrupted militant cells and targeted networks accused of moving explosives, weapons and operatives into the capital.
The agency has also targeted senior Al-Shabaab figures, including commanders linked to the group’s explosives and intelligence wings. Those operations have weakened some of the networks that once allowed the militants to operate more freely inside Mogadishu.
But the gains have not erased the wider threat. Al-Shabaab remains capable of complex attacks against civilians, government sites, military targets and foreign-backed missions. It remains the country’s most serious security threat.
Sanbalolshe’s warning, therefore, captures the central challenge facing Somalia’s intelligence war: the country has made real progress, particularly in Mogadishu, but it still needs deeper cooperation with foreign partners to defeat Al-Shabaab.
Those partners, however, remain reluctant to share their most sensitive intelligence as long as fears of infiltration persist.
