Somalia announces new reform to boost security sector

Somali government has announced new reform in the security sector in order to intensify work on the stability in the country.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said in a statement issued in Mogadishu Thursday that the Horn of Africa nation must stake constructive steps towards building a more integrated, accountable and transparent security sector.

Ensuring regular pay on a timely basis for national security sector personnel, carrying out a count of the number of security sector troops and invite international representatives to joint counting process within the next three months, and undertaking a security sector financial governance review, with the support of international partners, are among the plans in the reform.

“Ensuring that the national security sector is subject to rigorous oversight, and operates transparently in relation to personnel, purchases, salaries is the driving factor behind the reforms we are announcing today,” Mohamud said.

“Securing the peace of Somalia is the most critical task ahead of this government,” the president said.

Mohamud noted that the government has succeeded in capturing large areas in the country which were under the control of the Al-Shabab in recent years.

“Significant gains have been made in the past three years, including liberating more than 75 percent of Somalia from Al-Shabaab, and more recently, beginning the process of national troop integration,” he said.

The international community-backed government is still facing security challenges by the Al-Shabaab militants who carry out attacks and acts of violence in the country and its neighbors like Kenya.