II. Policing Mogadishu

Abstract

At first glance, Mogadishu’s security governance is organised conventionally. The coastal city was formally recognised as the capital of the federal republic when the internationally acknowledged FGS was established in 2012, and it hosts Somalia’s parliament, supreme court, prime minister’s office and the presidential palace, known as Villa Somalia. Located in Benadir region, it also acts as the capital of the Benadir Regional Administration (BRA) which, headed by the mayor of Mogadishu, covers the same area as the city and plays a significant role in the politics and decision-making of its seventeen districts (it receives 15 per cent of the federal budget). Benadir is the smallest administrative region in Somalia, but has the largest population, which in 2014 the UN estimated as approximately 1.65 million. This figure includes approximately 369,000 IDPs. Mogadishu’s security is officially managed by the SPF and less officially by NISA and its military counterterrorism force, Gaashaan (‘Shield’), essentially the regional administration’s intelligence agency. The Somali National Army is not operating formally in Mogadishu, its head having agreed in March 2017 to pull all military personnel from the city (4,000 had been present, most of whom had not been paid for months). However, this situation may yet change as a result of three decisions taken in April and May 2017.