The Perils of Somalia's Fragile Justice System

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

Somalia's constitution guarantees due process and humane treatment. Prison conditions, documented security force conduct, and the repeated failure to prosecute officials for arbitrary detention tell a different story. This assessment sets the documented record against the country's own legal commitments — and identifies what it would take to close the gap.

Special attention should be paid to the phenomena of arbitrary arrests and illegal detention, as well as to prison conditions. In cases where the prosecution or punishment is grossly unfair or disproportionate, or where a person is subjected to prison conditions not compatible with respect for human dignity, a situation of serious harm can occur. According to the international baseline outlined in the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), when assessing the conditions of detention the following elements must be taken into consideration cumulatively: the number of detained persons in a limited space, the adequacy of sanitation facilities, heating, lighting, sleeping arrangements, food, recreation, and contact with the outside world.

Somalia's prison system is administered by the Somali Custodial Corps. The corps has received technical support from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on specialised staff training, covering human rights protocols including the Bangkok Rules on the treatment of women prisoners, incident management, rehabilitation, prison duties, and basic medical care. Despite these frameworks, UN assessments point to a persistent deficit: the system suffers from a lack of a standardised training framework across central and federal member state levels. Untrained or inconsistently trained guards remain a deep systemic problem, and no comprehensive public data on the overall operational capacity of the Custodial Corps is available.

The precise location and distribution of prison establishments in Somalia remains difficult to map, as does the total census of prisoners and detainees throughout the country, including juvenile and female populations. Prison facilities are frequently structurally dilapidated. The primary operational facilities include:

• Somaliland: Hargeisa Prison
• Puntland: Facilities in Bosasso, Galkayo, and Garowe
• Benadir Region: Mogadishu Central Prison (MCP) and the Mogadishu Prison and Court Complex (MPCC), which features three dedicated prison blocks with a 700-bed capacity designed to process high-risk cases near civilian courts
• South-Central Somalia: Facilities in Kismayo, Baidoa, and Beledweyne

Urban prisons in Somalia, especially following large-scale security sweeps, suffer severe overcrowding. Authorities routinely fail to separate pre-trial detainees from convicted prisoners, a pattern most pronounced in the southern and central regions. Prison conditions in these areas are harsh and can become life-threatening.

OPR's annual assessments have consistently documented that poor sanitation, compromised hygiene, inadequate food, and a severe lack of medical care plague facilities across all regions. Inmates at MCP do not have standard access to showers, sanitary environments, or outdoor exercise. To survive, they rely heavily on family and clan networks to supplement daily food and water. The same applies to healthcare: authorities typically require families to pay out-of-pocket for medical treatment, leaving inmates without strong family or clan support with virtually no access to medical intervention. Within these densely packed settings, infectious disease outbreaks — including tuberculosis and cholera — are common, carrying lethal consequences particularly during the rainy season.

Lengthy pre-trial detention is an institutionalised problem. OPR has verified cases of individuals who remain incarcerated despite completing their full sentences, prisoners held for years without ever appearing before a judge, and individuals granted bail who are still held in custody. Because tracking is decentralised, reliable nationwide statistical estimates on the average duration or prevalence of pre-trial detention remain unavailable.

Significant human rights issues remain heavily documented across Somalia. These include unlawful or arbitrary killings by government forces, the use of torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, and widespread arbitrary arrest. Additional concerns include politically motivated disappearances, serious restrictions on freedom of expression and the press, violence and threats against journalists, and a lack of domestic investigation or accountability for violence against women and children, including conflict-related sexual violence and the illegal recruitment of child soldiers.

Somali National Army (SNA). Data compiled through UN Secretary-General monitoring mechanisms covering August 2016 to September 2019 attributed hundreds of violations against children to the SNA: 391 documented cases of child recruitment, 492 cases of deprivation of liberty for alleged association with Al-Shabaab or pro-ISIL elements, 297 cases of killing and maiming, 133 cases of rape and sexual violence, 8 attacks on schools or hospitals, and 5 cases of denial of humanitarian access. In successive reporting periods through early 2021, the SNA continued to be cited for verified incidents of conflict-related sexual violence and the deprivation of liberty of young boys.

Somali Police Force (SPF). Across four reporting sub-periods between February 2020 and February 2021, the SPF was linked to the arbitrary arrest and detention of 275 individuals, primarily on suspicion of Al-Shabaab alignment; the vast majority were subsequently released without charge. During the same period the SPF was implicated in multiple incidents of conflict-related sexual violence. Historical UN tracking from 2016 to 2019 attributed to the SPF 172 cases of child recruitment, 303 cases of deprivation of liberty, 50 cases of killing and maiming of children, 24 cases of rape, and 2 attacks on schools or hospitals.

Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA). NISA agents routinely conduct sweeping security operations against Al-Shabaab, suspected terrorist cells, and criminal organisations. The agency holds suspects for prolonged periods without due process and employs harsh interrogation methods. UNSOM and OHCHR documentation explicitly attributed the arbitrary arrest and detention of 14 civilians — including 4 working journalists and 10 terrorism suspects — directly to NISA operations in the period 2017 to 2019.

The UN's country task force monitoring grave violations against children in armed conflict has tracked alarming levels of abuse. Between October 2019 and September 2021, a total of 8,042 grave violations affecting 6,501 children were verified. A significant spike occurred in 2020, driven in part by COVID-19 school closures that left children isolated and vulnerable. Al-Shabaab accounted for the majority of verified violations; state and federal armed forces were responsible for a notable share of the remainder.

The systematic gaps in due process and custodial safety place Somalia in continuous breach of its international human rights commitments.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), ratified 1990. Systemic reliance on lengthy, unmonitored pre-trial detention violates Article 9, which prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention. Harsh, life-threatening conditions at facilities including MCP constitute a breach of Article 10, which requires that all persons deprived of their liberty be treated with humanity and respect for human dignity.

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), ratified October 2015. Verified incidents of child recruitment, unlawful deprivation of liberty, and sexual violence targeting minors committed by units of the SNA and SPF directly violate Article 37, which prohibits torture, cruel treatment, and unlawful deprivation of liberty for minors, and Article 38, which mandates the protection of children in armed conflict.

Convention against Torture (CAT), accession completed 1990. Documented physical abuse and harsh interrogation methods carried out during prolonged detentions by NISA agents directly violate anti-torture mandates. This is compounded by the ongoing failure to include a distinct criminal definition of torture in the domestic Somali Penal Code.

African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. The Charter reinforces individual protections against arbitrary incarceration and degrading treatment — guarantees that remain largely unfulfilled in the absence of domestic transparency and accountability mechanisms.

To close the accountability gap and align state operations with constitutional and international standards, OPR calls on the Federal Government of Somalia to act on the following.

Codify anti-torture legislation. Amend the domestic Penal Code to incorporate an explicit criminal definition of torture in alignment with CAT standards.

Establish independent detention monitoring. Grant civil society organisations, independent legal bodies, and UN human rights monitors unannounced access to all state-run detention facilities, including NISA interrogation sites and military detention.

Enforce statutory judicial deadlines. Direct federal and regional judiciaries to review all active custodial files and release individuals held beyond pre-trial limits or past their completed sentences.

Demilitarise juvenile justice. Implement command accountability measures within the SNA and SPF to eradicate child recruitment, and transfer all minors accused of security offences to dedicated, rehabilitation-focused civilian child protection services.

Standardise Custodial Corps funding. Allocate transparent, centralised federal funding to the Custodial Corps to secure baseline medical care, sanitation, and nutrition, eliminating the current dependence on clan networks for survival inside prison.

The patterns documented in this assessment reflect a justice system under severe systemic strain — one where constitutional guarantees of due process and humane treatment exist on paper but are bypassed in practice. Overcrowded and under-resourced facilities, indefinite pre-trial detention, and verified human rights abuses by state security forces combine to produce conditions that fall profoundly short of Somalia's own constitutional commitments and its international obligations.

OPR continues to monitor detention conditions across Somalia and calls on the Federal Government, regional administrations, and international partners to treat the accountability gap documented here as a matter requiring urgent and concrete action — not periodic condemnation and continued impunity.