On May 22, 2025, camera operator Yahye Mohamud Hersi of the privately owned channel Himilo Somali TV, RNN Somali TV reporter Abdullahi Yusuf Hassan and camera operator Mohamed Hassan Geedi were detained by security forces while covering protests in the capital Mogadishu, according to the Somali Journalists Syndicate and Yahye and Abdullahi, who spoke to CPJ.
While the journalists were filming and conducting interviews with women meat vendors protesting the demolition of their makeshift stalls in Mogadishu’s Hodan district, a local official armed with a pistol approached them and ordered them to stop recording. When the journalists refused, the official called for backup, and several plainclothes security officers arrived, the two journalists told CPJ.
The journalists were taken to the Hodan district offices, where they were detained for approximately five hours. The official who detained them demanded that they delete their footage in exchange for their release. The three journalists complied and were subsequently freed.
CPJ’s calls to Geedi did not receive a reply.
CPJ did not receive responses to its requests for comment sent via messaging app to Information Minister Abdifitah Qasim and police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan.