Ismail Abukar
Ismail Abukar is the Chairperson and co-founder of the Organization for Prisoners' Rights, and an independent investigative journalist.
He has spent seven years in field research and investigation on Somalia's prisons, detention facilities, security services, and the people held by them, including more than five hundred interviews with convicted Al-Shabaab operatives and a review of more than four hundred military court cases. He leads OPR's monitoring visits and documentation work and is the author of its annual assessment reports and investigations.
His investigations have been published by African Arguments, Horn Observer, and Lawfare. He holds an MA in International Law and Human Rights from the University for Peace (2021), and lectures and researches on minority rights in Somalia. He served as Somalia's Youth Representative to the African Union from 2019 to 2021, and is the founder and Chairperson of the Somali Rights Organization.
He was born and raised in Shalanbood, Lower Shabelle, and lived in Mogadishu from 2014 to 2024.
Contact
For OPR matters: [email protected]
Journalism and editorial enquiries: ismailabukar.com
ORCID: 0009-0003-1435-3691