Deaths in custody abroad
Somalis who died in foreign prisons, detention centres, traffickers' camps, or during deportation. No government keeps this list. OPR does, from public sources and testimony, and adds a line each time a death can be sourced.
| When | Who | Where | How | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-04-28 | Detained African migrants at Saada (Somali toll unknown; a local leader said 'very small') | Yemen | US airstrike on a Houthi-run migrant detention centre; at least 68 killed and 47 injured. A group of Somalis had reportedly been moved out three days earlier. | en.wikipedia.org |
| 2025 | At least 19 Somali men (names published by the Saudi Press Agency) | Saudi Arabia | Executed, mostly by beheading, for smuggling hashish, after detention at Najran prison; 12 in June 2025 alone. Twenty-seven more Somalis remained on death row. | menarights.org |
| 2024-10 | Three Somali men (names not published) | Libya | Died under torture in September and October 2024 inside traffickers' warehouses and houses, according to human rights activist Tariq Lamloum; families had been contacted for ransom. | libyaobserver.ly |
| 2022-01-21 | Detained African migrants at Saada (Somali toll unknown) | Yemen | Saudi-led coalition airstrike on the detention centre; at least 82 killed, 266 injured. | globaldetentionproject.org |
| 2018-10-24 | Abdulaziz, 28 | Libya | Set himself on fire at Triq al-Sikka detention centre, Tripoli, after nine months' detention, reportedly after being told he had no chance of evacuation; died in hospital. His wife remained in the centre. | aljazeera.com |
What this list does not yet contain
The names of the Somali men executed in Saudi Arabia in 2025 — the Saudi Press Agency publishes them, and OPR is compiling them. The Somali dead of the two Saada prison strikes. Deaths in Kenyan police cells, in Gulf deportation centres, on the Sudan–Libya road, and in the piracy prisons. Deaths of Somalis in European and American custody. If you know of one, tell OPR: a name, a place, a year, and how you know.