MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somali police arrested a senior advisor to the president of Puntland State during a late-night raid at an airport-area hotel in the capital, prompting allegations of intimidation and physical assault against federal lawmakers and sharpening political tensions across the country.
Authorities identified the detainee as Ahmed Abdi Mahamud Hurre. Witnesses and local reports said Hurre was meeting several members of the Somali Federal Parliament at the Airport Hotel in Mogadishu when police moved in and took him into custody.
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In a statement released shortly after the operation, the Somali Police Force described the arrest as a national-security action, saying officers had targeted a suspect involved in activities that threatened public safety.
“The Somali Police Force is fulfilling its national duties, and tonight the suspect, Ahmed Abdi Mahamud Hurre, who was involved in activities threatening security, was apprehended,” the statement said. “An investigation is currently underway.”
Multiple lawmakers said the raid turned chaotic. MP Sareedo Mohamed Hassan Jeyte wrote on social media that heavily armed officers stormed the hotel floors, confronted representatives and pointed guns at them before seizing Hurre by force.
“We were attacked by Somali police forces who entered the Airport Hotel where I stay,” Jeyte said. She alleged officers interrogated members of parliament about room locations and escalated their threats. “They pointed guns at us and threatened us. I survived an attempted killing and a kidnapping based on forced voting [intimidation].”
Police did not specify what actions by Hurre constituted a security threat, and government officials have not commented on the lawmakers’ assault allegations. No timeline was given for the investigation or potential charges.
The detention arrives as Mogadishu navigates a heated constitutional review process that has pitted the federal government against a spectrum of opposition figures. Critics contend the political climate has grown increasingly coercive, with moves they say are intended to suppress dissent and pressure lawmakers ahead of pivotal debates.
The arrest of a high-ranking advisor from Puntland State, a semi-autonomous region with a long and uneasy relationship with the federal center, risks deepening a rift that has flared repeatedly over power-sharing, security coordination and resource management. Regional administrators and federal leaders have often clashed over institutional authority, and any perception of political targeting in the capital could resonate far beyond Mogadishu’s airport district.
Hotels near the city’s fortified airport frequently host lawmakers and visiting officials, doubling as venues for political meetings under heavy security. The allegation that MPs were confronted at gunpoint while conducting their business is likely to increase anxiety among federal representatives and diplomatic missions, even as authorities maintain the operation was grounded in security concerns.
As of early Tuesday, neither Puntland State’s leadership nor the federal interior and security ministries had issued detailed public statements about the arrest. With the investigation ongoing and accounts of the raid sharply diverging, the episode has become a fresh flashpoint in Somalia’s fragile political landscape — and a test of whether federal-regional relations can withstand another shock without spilling into broader confrontation.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
