The Somali Correctional Forces have suspended the chief of the central prison in Mogadishu and initiated a comprehensive investigation into the incident.
This comes in the wake of a concerning pattern of prison break attempts by Al-Shabaab operatives in recent years.
According to a decree issued by the Chief of the Somali Correctional Forces, Gen. Mahad Abdirahman Adan, the latest incident occurred on July 13th when a group of militant prisoners, armed with pistols and hand grenades, attacked prison guards.
The assault resulted in the death of three guards and left three others injured, while five of the attacking inmates were fatally shot and 18 were wounded.
Gen. Adan appointed an eight-member committee to investigate the jailbreak attempt, with General Mohamed Hussein Ahmed as the acting prison chief to lead the inquiry.
During the ongoing investigation, the decree also named Gen. Mohamed Hussein Ahmed as the acting commander of the Central Prison.
“Somali security forces foiled an attempted jailbreak in Mogadishu’s main central prison after militant inmates, using pistols and hand grenades, attacked prison guards,” a spokesperson for the Somali Custodial Corps, Abdiqani Mohamed Khalaf, told reporters in the capital.
This latest incident is particularly alarming given the history of prison break attempts by Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia. In 2018, the Al Shabaab group carried out a daring assault on a prison in the town of Jowhar, resulting in the escape of dozens of their operatives.
A similar attempt was thwarted in 2020 at the Mogadishu central prison, where Al-Shabaab militants were found to have smuggled in weapons and explosives.
Khalaf confirmed that the five militants who were killed in the July 13th attack had been convicted of involvement in terrorist bombings and the smuggling of explosives in Mogadishu. Four of them were on death row, while the fifth inmate was serving a life sentence.
The brazen attack has raised serious concerns about the security measures in place at the central prison, prompting the Somali Correctional Forces to take swift action.
