On the evening of April 1, 2026, security officers arrested Abdihafid Nur Mohamud Barre, a journalist with the local Somali Cable TV, in the capital Mogadishu’s Waberi neighborhood, according to the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ after his release.
Abdihafid was approached by two plainclothes men who identified themselves as police officers and escorted him to a pickup truck, where two additional officers were waiting. During the journey, Abdihafid’s phone rang and one of the officers ordered that it be confiscated, the journalist told CPJ. When Abdihafid attempted to resist, he was slapped several times.
Abdihafid said he was briefly held in Waberi Police Station before being transferred to the city’s Yaqshid District Police Station, where he spent the night and two police investigators interrogated him about two Facebook posts.
In one post, Abdihafid reported that the militant group Al-Shabab claimed it had killed 15 government soldiers and wounded 23 others during fighting in the Daynunay area near the southwestern city of Baidoa. In 2022, the Somali government warned media outlets against publishing content it considers to be propaganda from Al-Shabab.
In the second, he criticized the government’s offensive against Al-Shabaab and forces loyal to Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Latfagreen, who was removed as leader of South West State after he fell out with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud over his re-election.
Abdihafid said he defended his reporting to the security officers, explaining that he had accurately quoted and attributed both statements to their respective sources.
On April 2, 2026, Abdihafid was brought before the Banadir Regional Court, which remanded him in custody for 45 days pending investigation. He was subsequently transferred to Mogadishu Central Prison, where he remained for seven days before being released on April 8, 2026.
As a condition of his release, Abdihafid was required to sign a document pledging to refrain from reporting on matters deemed critical to national security, particularly those related to Somali army operations. He agreed to these terms and was released following intervention by local press organizations and his relatives.
CPJ did not receive responses to its April 7 requests for comment sent via messaging app to Information Minister Daud Aweis and police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan.