Somali police detain and beat Guardian reporter, colleagues

Sarah JohnsonSunday May 10, 2026

The journalists said they were arrested and assaulted by counter-terrorism police in Mogadishu on Friday. Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images

A Somali journalist who reported on a woman’s claim that she was being tortured in prison was detained by authorities and beaten with pistols, along with two other reporters, in what media groups say is the latest sign of an escalating crackdown on press freedom.

Mohamed Bulbul was arrested on Friday evening in a restaurant in central Mogadishu with colleagues Abdihafid Nor Barre and Abdishakur Mohamed Mohamud. The three men said they were assaulted by officers from Somalia’s US-trained counter-terrorism police unit before being taken for questioning. They were freed in the early hours of Saturday.

Media outlets and MPs said the arrests were unlawful and politically motivated. They come as anger builds against the ruling establishment and with the presidential term due to expire on 15 May.

Abdirahman Abdishakur, an MP and leader of the opposition Wadajir party, condemned the detentions. In a post on X, he said Somalia’s president “appears consumed by fear, confusion as the end of its mandate approaches”.

He added: “Instead of addressing the growing public anger over forced displacement, land grabbing, and pursuing an inclusive political settlement to guide the country through this fragile transitional period, the administration has intensified repression against journalists, activists and outspoken young people.”

Bulbul’s detention is believed to be linked to his reporting on Sadia Moalim Ali, a 27-year-old rickshaw driver who is in prison over peaceful protest and her social media activism. He has also been highlighting alleged security-force abuses and forced evictions in Mogadishu.

On Thursday, the Guardian published Bulbul’s report in which Ali described being tortured in Mogadishu central prison. She said two male guards stripped her naked in a room monitored by CCTV, kicked her, beat her with a baton and left her for two days in a small cell without food. The story was widely circulated across Somali media, Facebook and X.

Bulbul and the two other journalists had faced repeated threats and intimidation in recent weeks. Their detention also came amid intense political pressure ahead of planned protests expected on Sunday.

At police headquarters, the three reporters said Mogadishu police chief Mahdi Omar Mumin threatened them if they continued covering the protests.

In a statement from the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), the journalists said Mumin told them he was “tired of arresting journalists” and warned that if they did not stay silent about the protests and other developments in Mogadishu, including Ali’s case, their only remaining option would be “death”.

Somali Stream, the media outlet where Mohamud works, denounced the arrests as “an illegal and politically motivated attack on independent journalism”.

AbdiKani Hamud Abokor, the organisation’s managing director, said: “Somali Stream strongly condemns the unlawful detention of Abdishakur [Mohamed] Mohamud, Abdihafid Nor [Barre], and Mohamed Bulbul. This is a deliberate attempt to terrorise journalists, suppress independent reporting and instil fear across Somalia’s media community.”

The detentions followed the arrest of several other journalists earlier in the week. On 6 May, SJS said at least five local journalists were taken into custody and had their equipment seized. The organisation also said two broadcast journalists, Ja’far Mohamed Jim’ale and cameraman Nur Hasan Ali, remained in detention and that their whereabouts were unknown.

Somalia ranks 126th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index. Reporters Without Borders, which compiles the index, says journalists in the country operate in a deeply insecure environment. More than 50 media workers have been killed there since 2010, making Somalia one of the most dangerous places for journalists in Africa.

The Somalian authorities have been approached for a response.