In Focus | Somalia
Deputy intelligence director Fahad Yasin is UN sub-contractor in fight against Al Shabaab
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To counter the Al Shabaab Islamist movement which makes great use of social media, the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) have set up a wide-ranging information campaign. The campaigns advance positions are represented by a host of local radio stations situated at the heart of Al Shabaab's zone of influence. Three of the most strategically important stations are linked to National Intelligence Security Agency (NISA) deputy director Fahad Yasin Haji Dahir. The contracts awarded to his HornConnect communications agency by the UN and the AU are worth $4 million per year.
Just 800 metres from the Qatari embassy in Mogadishu, behind the Safari Hotel which was damaged in an Al Shabaab car bomb attack on October 14 2017, are the premises of the HornConnect media group. The agency keeps a low profile but claims to have worked for Qatar's Al Jazeera TV station, the BBC and China's CCTV. HornConnect has also carried out missions for such bodies as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and, via the United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS), the African Union
