Somalia’s deepening assault on press freedom took another alarming turn Friday evening after security forces reportedly abducted and brutally assaulted the Director of Somali Stream’s Mogadishu office alongside two independent journalists in what media advocates are describing as a blatant act of state intimidation against the country’s already fragile independent press.
Director of Somali Stream’s office in Mogadisho Abdishakur Mohamed Mohamud popularly known as Shakra and journalists Hafid Nor Barre and Mohamed Bulbul were violently detained at Kaafi Hospital in Mogadishu’s Wadajir district, according to eyewitnesses and sources familiar with the incident.Witnesses said heavily armed security personnel subjected the journalists to severe beatings during the arrest before forcibly taking them to an undisclosed location.As of publication, Somali authorities had neither acknowledged the arrests nor disclosed the whereabouts or condition of the detained journalists, raising fears of enforced disappearance and unlawful detention.
The arrests come amid growing political tensions in Mogadishu and an increasingly hostile environment for journalists and independent media organizations operating in Somalia. The detained journalists had reportedly been facing sustained threats and intimidation linked to their reporting in recent weeks.their detention follows heightened political pressure surrounding a planned opposition demonstration expected to take place on Sunday, with critics accusing authorities of attempting to silence independent reporting ahead of anticipated anti-government mobilization.
The journalists were known for covering politically sensitive and human rights-related stories, including the controversial Sacdiya Bajaaj case and the forced displacement of civilians from government land in Mogadishu, issues that have generated widespread public outrage and scrutiny.In a strongly worded statement, Somali Stream condemned the arrests as “an illegal and politically motivated attack on independent journalism.”
“Somali Stream strongly condemns the unlawful detention of Abdishakur Mohamed Mohamud, Hafid Nor Barre, and Mohamed Bulbul,” the media outlet Managing Director AbdiKani Hamud Abokor said. “This is a deliberate attempt to terrorize journalists, suppress independent reporting, and instill fear across Somalia’s media community.”The organization warned that the continued targeting of journalists represents a dangerous escalation in the government’s crackdown on dissenting voices and independent media institutions.
“The arbitrary detention, assault, and intimidation of journalists during a week when the world marks World Press Freedom Day exposes the catastrophic decline of press freedom in Somalia,” the statement added.
Press freedom advocates in Somalia say the situation for Somali journalists has sharply deteriorated in recent years, with reporters facing arbitrary arrests, torture, threats, censorship, enforced disappearances, and assassinations.According to Reporters Without Borders, Somalia remains one of the deadliest countries in Africa for journalists. Media workers who refuse to self-censor are routinely targeted by both state authorities and armed groups such as Al-Shabaab, while journalists investigating corruption, abuse of power, and security issues face particularly severe reprisals.To make matters worse, the Somali government recently appointed a Media Council composed overwhelmingly of government loyalists rather than independent media representatives, prompting accusations that authorities are systematically dismantling media independence under the guise of regulation.
During President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s previous administration, Somalia’s ranking on the global press freedom index plummeted to 167 out of 180 countries in 2016. Although the ranking later improved under former President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, press freedom conditions have once again sharply deteriorated since Hassan Sheikh returned to office.Several journalists have been killed, wounded, or arbitrarily detained during the current administration.
Among the most notorious cases was the attempted killing of Ahmed Omar Nur, an M24TV reporter who was shot in the mouth at close range by members of the Haramcad elite police unit while covering the 2022 Hayat Hotel siege in Mogadishu. Another journalist, Mohamed Isse Hassan of M24 TV, was later killed, joining the long and tragic list of Somali media workers who have lost their lives simply for doing their jobs.Press freedom organizations have repeatedly warned that impunity for crimes against journalists in Somalia has emboldened both security forces and armed actors, creating a climate where violence against the press has become normalized.
Somali Stream has called for the immediate and unconditional release of the detained journalists and demanded urgent clarification regarding their whereabouts and safety.The outlet also announced plans to pursue legal action over what it described as the journalists’ illegal detention and appealed to local and international press freedom groups, human rights organizations, and civil society actors to urgently intervene before Somalia’s already shrinking democratic space collapses further.“The continued persecution of journalists in Somalia is not only an attack on the media,” Somali Stream said, “but an attack on truth, accountability, and the fundamental rights of the Somali people.”
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Abdikani Hamud Abokor
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