MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Mogadishu’s police chief announced he had suspended parliament on Monday, saying he was acting unilaterally to prevent lawmakers from extending the president’s term, only to be fired moments later by the police commissioner.
“We have stopped the parliament session today. We have a responsibility bigger than a personal one. We have to solve anything that can bring violence and war in Mogadishu,” Saadaq Omar Hassan told local television station Universal in a live speech. “The four-year term has ended.”
Moments later, Somalia’s police commissioner Hassan Mohamed Hijar, announced on Facebook that Hassan had been fired and replaced.
The chaos underscores the widening divisions within the Horn of Africa’s security services over extending the four-year term of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who faces growing pressure to quit after his term as national leader ended in February.
(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh; Writing by Elias Biryabarema and Katharine Houreld; Editing by Alison Williams and Raissa Kasolowsky)
