On August 5, 2025, police in Hargeisa, the capital of the breakaway region of Somaliland, detained Facebook-based journalist Ahmed Mohamud Dool at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department after he responded to a police summons, according to the Somaliland Journalists Association (SOLJA) and Abdikarim Saed Salah, a local journalist familiar with the case.
That morning, Ahmed, who reports on killings, insecurity, and protests on his Facebook page with 98,000 followers, posted that he did not know why he had been summoned.
Sacad Yasin, Ahmed’s lawyer, told CPJ that police said the journalist was being held in connection with a Facebook post quoting comments made by a local lawyer. Sacad said police did not provide further details.
On August 6, a Hargeisa court remanded Ahmed for four days. On August 10, police were granted a further seven days to hold him in custody pending investigation, and on August 17, the court extended his detention for another seven days, according to Sacad and Abdikarim. Sacad told CPJ that police had filed an investigation report with prosecutors, but the journalist had yet to be charged.
On September 3, 2025, the Hargeisa District Court convicted Ahmed of spreading misinformation, fined him 1.5 million Somaliland shillings (about US$150), and ordered his release, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ, and a statement by SOLJA chairperson Shafi'i Mohamed Ibrahim. The local lawyer that Ahmed quoted, who was the second defendant in the case, was acquitted.
Ahmed told CPJ that during his imprisonment, authorities pressured him to recant his reporting and that he believed that his resistance to these demands was the reason for his month-long detention.
In August 2025, CPJ contacted Information Minister Ahmed Yasin Sheikh Ali Ayaanle via messaging app and emailed the information ministry and Somaliland police but did not receive a response.
Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but has not been recognized internationally.