Tensions are High in Somaliland as Clans Threaten To Break Away
Security forces in the semiautonomous region of Somaliland are holding six journalists arrested earlier this week, eyewitnesses said on Saturday
The detained journalists were rounded up in separate incidents in Lasanod of Sool region and Borama of Awdal region, they said.
According to friends and relatives, the security officers pounced on the journalists as they went about their duties. The first batch of reporters were seized last week while bracing themselves to cover a demo staged by locals against Somaliland authorities.
Among those arrested in Lasanod include Abdikani Hassan Farah (Universal TV), Barkad Omar Abdi and Abdirahman Omar Du’ale (Horncable TV).
At the same time, Mohamed Omar Hayne, Ali Ismail Aare (Waheen newspaper) and Yusuf Abdi Ali (Royal TV) were arrested in Borama on Thursday for allegedly posting news against the authorities.
The journalists are still in custody and no charges have been preferred against them.
Relatives expressed fears that the journalists may have been harrassed or tortured while in the hands of the security forces. “When we visited them in custody, we found them nursing wounds all over their bodies, and they were in pain," Ayuub Siyad, one of the journalists' relatives in Lassanod told Somalia Report.
On Saturday, a cross section of the Somali media strongly condemned the arbitrary arrests of the journalists in Somaliland and called on the international community to intervene.
“We are calling on the international community to exert pressure on Somaliland authorities so as to release the reporters," a Somalii journalist in Hargaisa told Somalia Report on condition of anonymity.
In recent months there have been growing tensions in Somaliland with some leading clans, mainly Gudubirsi and Dhulbahante in Awdal, Sool, Sanaag and Ayn regions opposing Somaliland authorities and announcing plans to form their own regional administration separate from Somaliland.
