On May 26, 2026, journalist Abdirahman Hassan Mohamed was detained for reporting on allegations made by women selling the herbal stimulant khat in Somalia’s southwestern city of Baidoa, according to the Somali Journalists Syndicate and Abdirahman, who spoke to CPJ following his release.
Khat is a leafy plant used in parts of East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula where people chew the plants for their natural stimulants as part of centuries-old social and cultural traditions.
The women told Abdirahman, a reporter and co-founder of the digital outlet Gacal Media, that government soldiers had raided their stalls, assaulted them, and stolen their khat.
Baidoa is the largest city in South West State, one of Somalia’s six federal states.
On the evening of May 25, an officer from Baidoa Criminal Investigation Department (CID) called Abdirahman and ordered him to report to Baidoa Central Police Station for questioning the following morning.
Abdirahman told CPJ that he complied and met the officer who told him that South West State officials had ordered his detention over the report, which they considered to be incitement to violence.
Abdirahman was released on the afternoon of May 28, following the intervention of clan elders, who warned him to be cautious in his reporting as they might not be able to secure his freedom again, the journalist told CPJ.
Ibrahim Gabow Ali, a director in the information ministry, told CPJ via email that Abdirahman had spread false information and was warned about doing so upon his release.
CPJ’s email to request comment from the South West State presidency did not receive a reply.