Somalia PM Roble orders security forces to take orders from him, escalating crisis

Somalia’s prime minister Mohammed Hussein Roble said on Monday he was ordering all security forces to take orders directly from him, potentially deepening an ongoing dispute with President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.

The dispute is widely seen as distracting the government from fighting an extremist insurgency and prompted the United States to call for calm.

The prime minister on Monday accused President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed of staging a coup attempt as a simmering political dispute between both leaders of the Horn of Africa country escalated.

“I want to share with Somalis that the steps taken by former President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo were an open coup attempt against the government and the national constitution,” Prime Minister Roble said in a statement posted on the Facebook page of Somalia state news agency SONNA.