Six Years On: What COVID-19 Left Behind in Somalia’s Prisons, and Where Things Stand in 2026

By Ismail Abukar | Organization for Prisoners’ Rights (OPR) | 29 September 2026

• Six years after COVID-19 arrived, the year’s record shows more people held without judicial review, fewer independent channels to find out where they are, and reform announcements that have not reached the cells.
• Journalist Mascuud Warsame was held by Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) for 38 to 39 days without charge or a judge, and was allowed to speak to his wife only twice.
• Somaliland pardoned 713 prisoners in February and 609 in July, all convicted of minor offences, while prisoners from the Las Anod war remain held pending a political deal.
• In March, the commander of the Custodial Corps (the prison service) was dismissed and reportedly placed under house arrest, without a public explanation.
• OPR’s February 2026 study of nine prisons found that about a third of inmates it interviewed were held for family-related “rehabilitation” rather than for crimes, and that some people on remand had waited as long as seven years for a trial.
• This report is still open. Figures for 2026 are provisional.

Read together, the six reports in this series describe a system that COVID-19 found unprepared and that has not been rebuilt.

In 2020, prisons were protected mainly by donated supplies and by a small number of releases, visits were cut, and a shooting at Mogadishu Central Prison killed 19 people. In 2021, visits were suspended again in Somaliland, Bosaso prison was attacked, and more than 1,000 low-risk prisoners were released with help from the UN Development Programme. In 2022, the emergency ended and the conditions did not change. In 2023, a new intelligence law widened detention powers and access to family, sunlight and care could be bought. In 2024, deaths, overcrowding and the commercialisation of food and water were recorded. In 2025, a national commission was named, a general died in custody, and the most secretive prison in Mogadishu was attacked.

Through all six years, one gap did not close: there are no public figures for how COVID-19 moved inside the prisons, and, as the U.S. State Department noted for 2022, information on death rates in prisons was unavailable.

Between 2022 and 2025, convicted prisoners at Mogadishu Central Prison rose from 1,540 to 2,590, about 68 percent, in a prison designed for 400 to 500 people. Counting the court complex, convicted prisoners in Mogadishu rose from 1,810 to 2,899, about 60 percent. The number held awaiting trial rose from 1,134 to 1,105 — a slight decrease, though the 2025 figure is identical to 2024’s. The number of prisoners OPR found held beyond their sentences rose from 47 in 2023 to 179 in 2025, nearly fourfold, though OPR could not verify these figures. OPR verified 104 deaths in Mogadishu’s prisons since 2019 in its 2023 report and 137 in 2024, and gave no updated count in 2025.

None of these figures shows recovery. They are counts of a system under more strain each year, and each report repeated the same findings on tuberculosis, cholera, hygiene, food and water, and the price of visits. Where OPR’s reports do show change, it is in the size of the populations and in the cost of access.

OPR’s annual counts cover Mogadishu only, and the 2026 count will not exist until December. For 2026, the most recent systematic evidence is OPR’s February study, Somalia’s Prisons in Crisis, which looked beyond Mogadishu.

OPR’s report of February 21, 2026 draws on field research in nine prisons and detention facilities: Mogadishu Central Prison and the Mogadishu Prison and Court Complex, and prisons in Baidoa, Samareb, Adado, South Galkacyo, Beledweyne and Jowhar, plus the Warsheikh detention facility. Researchers interviewed about 200 inmates and 25 prison staff, and held focus groups and community interviews. Because there are no comprehensive prison records, much of the evidence rests on interviews and observation, and OPR says so. It is a study of patterns, not a count.

The patterns match what the annual counts show.

• Healthcare and hygiene. Access to healthcare was among the most urgent concerns in nearly every facility. Prisoners described inadequate or non-existent medical services, poor food and water, and no soap or detergent. Several described cells shared with more than 50 people.
• Prisons as a substitute for other services. About a third of inmates, in OPR’s estimate, were held for family-related “rehabilitation”: disobedience, smoking, chewing khat, drinking alcohol, family disputes or trying to migrate abroad. Many had not committed offences recognised in criminal law. One described being told his release depended on when his family and clan chose.
• Mixing of prisoners. In many facilities, children, people accused of minor offences and people held for family reasons were housed with convicted murderers and alleged al-Shabaab members.
• Waiting. Some people on remand said they had spent as long as seven years in prison without a trial.
• Money decides. Many inmates stayed inside because they could not pay compensation, fines or customary “blood money”, and poorer prisoners stayed beyond their sentences. A community representative described the justice system as like a prepaid phone: you pay first. Prisoners from minority clans, who lack family or clan support, were among the most exposed.
• Mental illness. Most facilities had no trained mental health staff, and staff said inmates with mental illness often got worse in custody.
• Dependence on donors. Healthcare and rehabilitation depended heavily on international support that staff called inconsistent.

The study does not mention COVID-19, and I do not claim these conditions are caused by it. Its relevance to this series is that it finds, six years after the pandemic began, the same shortages the pandemic exposed: too little space, care and clean water, and no way for prisoners without money or family to protect themselves.

On June 30, 2026, Mascuud Warsame, founder of the outlet Xogbile, was taken by three armed NISA officers in Mogadishu and released on August 8 without charge. The Somali Journalists Syndicate reports that he was never brought before a court, and was moved to a facility near the Mogadishu port known as Godka Jilacow 2. He was allowed to speak to his wife twice in 39 days, and on one call an officer told him to say only that he was fine and would be home soon. The Committee to Protect Journalists counts 38 days.

In February, journalist Abdihafid Nor was abducted by armed army officers in Mogadishu a day after posting about the dismissal of four commanders of the Gorgor, an elite army unit trained by Turkey. In May, women’s rights organisations protested the arrest of Sadia Moalim Ali by officers reportedly affiliated with NISA, and a Banadir appeals court overturned her three-year sentence in August.

In May, the chair of Somalia’s National Independent Human Rights Commission and the Justice Minister agreed to strengthen prison oversight. In March, the commander of the Custodial Corps, General Mahad Abdirahman Aden, was dismissed and reportedly placed under house arrest without a court order, with no public explanation. The service that runs the country’s prisons changed hands amid a political dispute.

In Somaliland, President Irro pardoned 713 prisoners in February and 609 in July, all convicted of minor offences. The Las Anod prisoners are a separate matter. A Somaliland deputy minister said their release would come only through a formal agreement, and days later the North Eastern State parliament ordered prosecutions of detainees held in Las Anod.

Six years after the pandemic began, prisoners in Somalia and Somaliland still face the conditions that made COVID-19 dangerous: overcrowded cells, limited medical care, access to food and family that depends on money or connections, prison used for family disputes and unpaid compensation, and detention in places no independent body can inspect. What has changed is that more announcements exist, and more people are held outside the ordinary legal process.

The lesson of the pandemic was that prisons must be reformed before the next crisis exposes them again. In 2026, that reform has been announced repeatedly and has yet to reach a cell.

OPR calls for annual publication of prison-by-prison population, health and mortality data, beginning with a public account of COVID-19’s toll inside prisons in 2020 and 2021; independent inspectors with unannounced access to every place of detention, including sites run by NISA and by the police Criminal Investigation Directorate; an end to detention beyond 48 hours without a judge; free medical care and an end to fees for food, water and visits; an end to imprisonment for family “rehabilitation” and for unpaid compensation; separate rehabilitation and mental health facilities, and juvenile centres apart from adult prisons; release or trial of every prisoner whose detention depends on a political agreement; and investment in prison health, staffing and infrastructure that lasts beyond an emergency.

About the author

Ismail Abukar is an independent investigative journalist and Chairperson of the Organization for Prisoners’ Rights (OPR), an independent nonprofit based in Mogadishu. He holds an MA in International Law and Human Rights from UPEACE. [email protected]

More about the author·[email protected]