MOGADISHU, Somalia 24 November 2025 – The Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) strongly condemns the unlawful arrest, police harassment and confiscation of equipment of Himilo Somali TV (Himilo Media) camerajournalist Abdullahi Mohamed Ali, known as Saawey, who was arrested on Friday, 21 November in Mogadishu.
On Friday afternoon, Abdullahi Mohamed Ali was reporting on an ongoing protest in the Yaaqshiid district of Mogadishu. Local community members had gathered to oppose a planned forced eviction and land grabbing taking place in a slum-like neighborhood in the Yaaqshiid district.
Armed police attempted to disperse the protesters by shooting at them, which sadly resulted in the death of two civilians including a 20-year-old man among the peaceful demonstrators, according to media reports. The order to disperse and shoot the protesters was reportedly given by the Banadir Regional Police Commander, Mahdi Omar Muumin, known as Moalim Mahdi.
Eyewitnesses told SJS that the police beat and arrested Abdullahi Mohamed Ali while he was covering the protest. A colleague, Omar Yusuf Mohamed, who was with Abdullahi, managed to flee.
Abdullahi was initially held at a police post before he was transferred to the Yaaqshiid District Police Station where he was held until Monday afternoon. His family was blocked from seeing him. Abdullahi also told SJS that on Saturday, 22 November, a police prosecutor forcibly interrogated him while he was held without legal representation.
Abdullahi was arraigned at the Banadir Regional Court on Monday, 24 November. He told SJS that he was charged with “mobilising the protestors” and “inciting the public.” The judge subsequently released him due to a lack of evidence to support the police’s allegation.
During the court hearing, it was revealed that Abdullahi was specifically targeted because of his affiliation with Himilo Media.
Abdullahi further stated that police prosecutor Nuradin Mohamed Hussein (Jimale) had confiscated his phone and forced him to surrender his passwords. The prosecutor was reportedly angry and mentioned several times that Banadir Police Commander Moalim Mahdi “hates journalists working for Himilo Media.”
Despite Abdullahi’s release, the Himilo Media management informed SJS that their equipment, including a digital video camera, microphones, tripod, and lighting equipment, was not returned. When they sought to retrieve the equipment on Monday afternoon, they were told that the police commander, Moalim Mahdi, had ordered the equipment to be held.
Forced evictions against vulnerable communities have recently skyrocketed. Various sources report that Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and his close political and business allies are linked to being the main perpetrators, benefiting from the unaudited sale of public lands, government properties, and even sometimes private lands forcibly grabbed from their rightful owners. Journalists covering these evictions are repeatedly targeted, while many of the local media outlets prefer to remain silent to avoid being targeted.
The Friday 21 November incident occurred at a former government land in the Yaaqshiid, north of Mogadishu, which turned residential area that was settled in the 1960s. Many of the residents possess ownership documents provided by the former Somali central government. Local media, including Himilo TV, reported that corrupt businessmen and government officials had been attempting to illegally grab the land and evict the local community.
“This unlawful arrest, detention, and baseless prosecution of our colleague Abdullahi Mohamed Ali (Saawey) of Himilo Media is a brazen and unacceptable attack on press freedom. Reporting on forced evictions—a clear matter of public interest and human rights—is not a crime; it is the fundamental duty of a journalist,” said SJS Secretary General, Abdalle Mumin.
“We demand that the Mogadishu police and their commander immediately cease this campaign of harassment and intimidation against journalists. The use of state power to silence media outlets like Himilo TV for exposing corruption must stop now. Furthermore, we call for the immediate and unconditional return of all confiscated equipment, which is being illegally held by the Police Commander, Moalim Mahdi, in an obvious act of punishment,” says Mr. Mumin “The truth will not be silenced by arbitrary arrests or the confiscation of cameras.”
Separately, on 16 November, a group of journalists was stopped by officers from the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) while collecting vox-pop interviews about the disputed elections in Somalia. The group included Abdullahi Mohamed Ali and Abdullahi Abdulkadir Ahmed (both working for Himilo Media), Abdirahman Mohamed Waaberi (freelancer), and Ali Hassan Guure (cameraman from Risaala Media) along with his colleague Hamda Hassan Ahmed.
The journalists were initially taken toward a nearby police station but were released before reaching it. The journalists told SJS that they were told to pay the taxi fare incurred for their transportation to and from the police station, and they were released only after they paid the fare.