Somalia's two most powerful leaders were locked in a standoff on Wednesday after they named different men to head the politically unstable Horn of Africa nation's intelligence service.
The open row between President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and Prime Minister Mohammed Hussein Roble, nominally over a murder investigation, marks an escalation of months of tension between them in a country already riven by militant attacks and clan rivalries.
On Monday, Roble suspended Fahad Yasin, director of the National Intelligence Service Agency , saying he had failed to deliver a report on the case of an agent who disappeared in June.The president called Roble's move unconstitutional and, late on Tuesday, named a third man, Yasin Abdullahi Mohamed, to head the agency.
The president's appointee took over at a handover ceremony Wednesday morning, NISA said in a tweet. Security around the agency's headquarters was tight, local residents said. The African Union, UN and foreign donor nations including Britain and the United States on Tuesday urged a de-escalation of the row and called on the president and prime minister to"avoid any actions that could lead to violence."
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