Yusuf Ahmed Sarinle was a general and, at the time of his death, the top security official of the embattled government of Somalia, functioning as the police chief of Mogadishu during the Somali Civil War. He was murdered in his home by unknown gunmen on January 23, 2005, the possible target of assassination by militia members. Sarinle was a supporter of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and also favored bringing

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...

peacekeeping troops to the country. A few days before his murder, an Italian colonial cemetery had been destroyed by militiamen, and Sarinle had been investigating the incident. According to Egyptian newspaper

Al-Ahram ''Al-Ahram'' ( ar, الأهرام; ''The Pyramids''), founded on 5 August 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after '' al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya'' (''The Egyptian Events'', founded 1828). It is majori ...

, "Sarinle was strongly opposed to militant Islamists, and many believe that Islamists were behind his cold-blooded murder." Several other high-ranking Somali police officials were also assassinated at that time, and after Sarinle's death, the Islamists took control of Mogadishu.

References

{{Reflist Somalian police chiefs Somalian murder victims