Friday April 11, 2025
Brussels (HOL) – Somalia's first National Security Service (NSS) director and a key figure in the military government of Siad Barre, General Ahmed Suleyman Abdalla Dafle, has died in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday at the age of 87, his family confirmed.
Born in Burco, in the Togdheer region of northern Somalia, in 1937, Dafle was a central figure in Somalia's political and security landscape during the Barre regime.
He served as the head of Somalia's National Security Service (NSS) from 1971, a position in which he led in building one of Africa's most formidable intelligence institutions at the time. He later held key roles as Minister of Interior and was a member of the Supreme Revolutionary Council, the military junta that governed Somalia from 1969 until the regime's fall in 1991. Dafle was also Siad Barre's son-in-law.
General Dafle was widely considered one of the most powerful men in Somalia during the 1970s and 1980s, with far-reaching influence both domestically and abroad.
In a tribute posted on Thursday, Fahad Yasin Haji Dahir, a former director of Somalia's National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), praised Dafle as "the most influential Somali politician on the African continent," and credited him with playing a strategic role in supporting African liberation movements.
"He was the architect of Somali intelligence. Its early success in the 1977 Ogaden War was largely due to the NSS's infiltration and access to Ethiopian military secrets. The legacy he left behind at the agency is still felt today," Fahad wrote.
Fahad also revealed that during his time leading NISA, he named the Grand Mosque inside NISA headquarters after General Dafle in honor of his contributions to the institution.
General Dafle's death comes at a time when Somalia is once again focused on rebuilding and professionalizing its national security institutions, amid an intensified campaign against Al-Shabaab.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.