On November 2, 2025, Somali security officers detained M24 Somali TV’s Mohamed Abdi Hassan, also known as Afgoye, and five other journalists in the capital Mogadishu while they were covering the killing of a schoolboy, according to the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and Mohamed, who spoke to CPJ after his release.
Four of the journalists told CPJ that they had interviewed family members of the slain schoolboy, who was allegedly killed in an exchange of gunfire involving soldiers, when approximately six plainclothes security officers approached them and confiscated their equipment in Wadajir district.
The other journalists were camera operator Abdiqani Said Mohamed and reporter Ibrahim Hussein Ahmed, also known as Sheekeeye, of Hirasho TV; reporter Hibo Mohamed Mohamud and camera operator Sakariye Ahmed Hassan of Daash Somali TV; Osman Hassan Mokoma of Five Somali TV.
The journalists were taken to Wadajir Police Station where they were forced to delete their footage and then released, without charge, after about three hours.
CPJ did not receive responses to its calls to Sakariye and Abdiqani or its requests for comment, via messaging app, to Information Minister Abdifitah Qasim Mohamud and police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan Hassan.