On May 11, 2025, police in Somaliland’s eastern town of Erigavo arrested journalist Mohamed Abdi Hassan, also known as Onkod, over a Facebook video about the integration of local clan militias into the army, according to the Somaliland Journalists Association and Mohamed, who spoke to CPJ after his release.
On May 10, Mohamed, founder and operator of the online platform Yagleel Media, published a video report in which he interviewed residents of the town of Jidali, about 40 kilometers east of Erigavo, who were critical of the policy’s security implications.
Police officers arrested Mohamed upon his return to Erigavo and took him to Erigavo Central Police Station where investigators questioned him about the report and accused him of incitement. Mohamed told CPJ that he denied the allegations, saying that his reporting was based on interviews with local residents and did not contain inciting material.
Mohamed told CPJ that an investigating officer who reviewed the video told him that it did not contain inappropriate or inciting content but that the arrest had been ordered by Sanaag authorities.
On May 13, 2025, Mohamed was released without charge, after 48 hours in detention.
Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but has not been recognized internationally, except by Israel in December 2025.
CPJ did not receive responses to April 2026 emails to the police and Office of the Attorney General, requesting comment on several cases of journalists detained since January 2025, including Mohamed. Similar emails to the ministry of information and the presidency returned error messages, and calls to those offices were unanswered in early May 2026.