Senior NISA agent resigns, cites serious human rights violations inside detention facility

by: | 18 March 2022 19:34

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Senior NISA agent resigns, cites serious human rights violations inside detention facility

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) Somalia's National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) is once again embroiled in a scandal over human rights abuses, following the resignation earlier this month by a female agent at the Godka Jila'ow, a noto

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NISA agent, Hamdi Hassan Mohamud [right] resigns early March accusing the acting head of the intelligence service, Yasin Farey [left], of committing gross human rights violations.

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) Somalia's National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) is once again embroiled in a scandal over human rights abuses, following the resignation earlier this month by a female agent at the Godka Jila'ow, a notorious detention and torture center run by NISA, a memo shows.

In December 2018, Somalia announced that it has closed the prison where the government has held extremist suspects and journalists amid allegations of abuses against inmates. However it is still actively used.

The underground prison which locates in the vicinity of the presidential palace, has dark dungeons for torture, according to former detainees and ex-employees.

In an internal memo dated March 4, 2022, Colonel Hamdi Hassan Mohamud, a female officer in-charge of the NISA's interrogations unit at the Godka Jila'ow, resigned as she accused the acting NISA commander, Yasin Farey, of acting actions that contravene the law and committing human rights abuses.

"Since Yasin Farey and NISA administration had been acting outside the law I have decided not to be part of their actions that are abuse of power and misuse of the [military] court to their advantage as there is no one holding them accountable," she wrote before fleeing the country for her safety.

Hamdi further said that she has been working for NISA for the past 13 years and that she had witnessed gross misconduct and violations of human rights.

"I and several [ex-NISA employees] others like me are living witnesses to these violations of human rights," she added.

LATEST INCIDENTS

According to two NISA sources who sought anonymity, Colonel Hamdi's resignation follows after she opposed to take up a case involving a female al-Shabaab suspect who allegedly raped by NISA officers inside Godka Jila'ow.

"The female detainee was not arraigned in court for months but unfortunately had been raped repeatedly inside the detention," one source told Horn Observer.

However, Hamdi's refusal to take the detainee to the court on a cooked up charges blew the whistle.

Repeated allegations of unlawful killings, rape and enforced disappearances perpetrated by NISA have been mounting with no accountability for its officers and employees.

In September last year, prime minister Mohamed Hussein Roble suspended then NISA chief, Fahad Yasin, a move president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo called unconstitutional.

The dispute over Fahad Yasin erupted after days of tension in the capital Mogadishu over the mysterious disappearance and death of Ikran Tahlil Farah, a female NISA officer in June 2021.

No independent investigation has been conducted so far on all these incidents.