On the evening of December 17, 2025, Somali journalist Abdullahi Abdi Hersi, popularly known as Abdullahi Qorshe, was detained by police in the central city of Dhusamareeb, Galmudug State, he later told CPJ.
Abdullahi, a freelance reporter for privately owned Somali Cable TV, said he was responding to a call from Mustaf Salad, deputy commander of Dhusamareeb Police Station, ordering him to report to the station. He was not informed of any alleged wrongdoing. The journalist went to the station with his father, a local police officer. Upon arrival, authorities arrested him without presenting charges and placed him in a holding cell overnight.
The arrest followed Abdullahi’s video report on Facebook, where he regularly publishes news, that Faysal Ahmed Gurey, a member of the state parliament, had criticized leaders of the Dhusamareeb administration on Facebook for “refusing” to install streetlights to help curb crime.
On December 18, Faysal visited Abdullahi at the station where the commander Nur Elmi said that Abdullahi and another journalist, Abdullahi Abdikadir Nur, who was arrested that morning over a similar report, had “insulted state leaders” and such people “belong in jail,” the lawmaker told CPJ.
On December 20, 2025, Abdullahi was released without charge, through a guarantor process, by which he signed a document stating that he would refrain from critically reporting on the Galmudug administration.
Abdullahi Abdikadir Nur was released the same day, under similar conditions.
Abdullahi told CPJ that his Facebook reporting has since been restricted, as administration officials phoned his guarantor to warn the journalist not to report critically on the administration and forced him to delete a recent video post.
CPJ did not receive responses to its March 2026 queries via email to the Galmudug State House and the Ministry of Internal Security, and via messaging app and text message to station commander Nur Elmi and Galmudug police commander Khalif Abdulle Maalin.