On July 14, 2026, intelligence agents in the city of Bosaso, in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, arrested freelance journalist Mohamed Jama Mohamud over his reporting on the hardship caused by the port’s closure in protest against tax increases, according to the Media Association of Puntland press freedom group and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ after his release.
Mohamed, who publishes news on his Facebook page, told CPJ that four plainclothes officers, who later identified themselves as members of the Puntland Intelligence and Security Agency (PISA), arrested and blindfolded him and forced him into an unmarked vehicle.
Mohamed said the officers took him to a PISA facility in Bosaso, where they questioned him about his July 13 video report and he told them that he was simply carrying out his work as a journalist.
In a second round of questioning, the investigators forced Mohamed to share his phone passwords, searched his mobile money accounts, and accused him of working for an “external enemy,” the journalist told CPJ.
On July 18, Mohamed was released without charge, after four nights in detention.
CPJ did not receive responses to July 2026 requests for comment sent via email to Puntland’s ministry of information and via messaging app to information minister Farhan Ali Hersi, attorney general Ahmed Mohamed Yusuf, and presidential spokesperson Jama Deperani.