Somalia jails woman after peaceful protest; she was stripped and beaten

Sarah Johnson and Mohamed BulbulFriday May 8, 2026

From behind prison walls in Somalia, a 27-year-old rickshaw driver says her only crime was speaking out. Sadia Moalim Ali has accused her guards of stripping her naked, beating her and locking her in a cell without food after her arrest over anti-government protests.

Sadia Moalim Ali, who says she was arrested, beaten and left for two days without food. Photograph: Handout

A woman detained in Somalia for joining peaceful demonstrations has described what she says was a brutal assault at the hands of prison guards.

Sadia Moalim Ali told the Guardian she was taken into a room under CCTV surveillance, stripped naked by two male guards, kicked, struck with a baton and left for two days in a cramped cell without food.

In an exclusive interview from prison, she said: “I was tortured. I was forced to lie face down on the ground, and water was poured on me. I was kicked by guards with boots on. They stood over me and beat me with a baton.

“I was taken into solitary confinement and kept there for two days. I was deprived of food and basic necessities while I was locked in that cell. I wasn’t allowed to leave to go to the toilet.”

Torture – defined as any act by which severe pain or suffering, physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted – is prohibited under international law and by the UN Convention against Torture in all circumstances.

Ali, a nursing graduate who earns her living driving a rickshaw, was arrested on 12 April and held at a police station after using Facebook and TikTok to criticise Somalia’s federal government. Her posts targeted alleged corruption and nepotism, forced evictions, youth unemployment, taxation and high fuel prices.

She was moved on 14 April to Mogadishu central prison, where she is still being held. Ali said she has not been formally charged and has been denied access to a lawyer assigned to her case. She also said police made her sign a document she did not understand before bringing her before a court.

According to Amnesty International, police have been authorised by the court to detain her for 90 days while investigations continue.

Ali told Shabelle Media, a Somali radio and television news organisation, in an interview broadcast on 20 April that she was being held without due legal process and pleaded for her release.

She said that interview led directly to the abuse she suffered. “Before when I spoke to the media, I was punished the same day … Truly a lot of pain was inflicted on me.”

The cell where she says she was held is known as cellula della morte – the cell of death – a name tied to the prison’s Italian colonial origins, which ended in 1941. Former inmates say the room is used to punish prisoners and hold those facing execution. They describe a floor soaked with engine oil and salt and covered in faeces, a space of roughly two square metres that becomes unbearably hot. The stench, they say, is so severe that it has made people vomit.

Ali, who supports her extended family and her 11-month-old daughter, is now sharing another cell with 38 other women.

“It is a very difficult life,” she said. “No human being deserves to be put in here. It is a place with no ventilation. Even a healthy person gets sick. It is very noisy and very crowded.”

She said she has been unable to sleep properly and is suffering from kidney problems, along with numbness in her hand and foot. She said she wants to return home to her family and would stop her activism.

“I have endured severe violations and I deeply plead for justice, for my rights and my freedom to be restored by those responsible.”

Dalmar Dhayow, of the Coalition of Somali Human Rights Defenders, said women in Somali prisons regularly face a range of abuses.

“We know sexual assault or violence is systematically used as a tool to force women [to make false confessions], humiliate and harass them inside prison,” said Dhayow. “We know a lot of cases of women being shackled while they are detained, with their legs and hands bound.”

Human rights groups, former government officials and a Somali MP say Ali’s detention is unlawful and are demanding her immediate release. Abdirahman Abdishakur, leader of an opposition party, wrote on X that her detention was “a national disgrace and a damning indictment of President Hassan Sheikh’s administration”.

“Her only ‘offence’ was speaking out against corruption and nepotism within government institutions,” he wrote. “That is not a crime; it is a fundamental civic right. Mr President, failing to tolerate the voice of a single young woman is not a sign of strength, it is a clear display of insecurity.”

Since 2022, Somali authorities have faced accusations of mounting a systematic crackdown on human rights, relying on arbitrary arrests, detention, harassment, threats and intimidation to silence journalists, activists and others who voice dissent.

The Somali government was approached for comment but did not respond.