Detained Without Recourse: Arbitrary Detention, Abuse, and Accountability Failures in Somalia’s Justice System

A comprehensive documentation of pre-trial detention, prison conditions, security force conduct, and grave violations against children — drawing on UN, OPR, and international monitoring data

Arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention, and abusive prison conditions remain among the most serious weaknesses in Somalia’s justice system. These issues demand urgent scrutiny, particularly where detention is imposed without due process, punishment is grossly disproportionate, or prison conditions fail to respect basic human dignity. The resulting harm, in many cases, meets the threshold of serious human rights violations under applicable international standards.

A Justice System Too Fragile to Guarantee Basic Rights

Arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention, and abusive prison conditions remain among the most serious weaknesses in Somalia’s justice system. These issues demand urgent scrutiny, particularly where detention is imposed without due process, punishment is grossly disproportionate, or prison conditions fail to respect basic human dignity. Any meaningful assessment of detention conditions in Somalia must consider the cumulative impact of overcrowding, poor sanitation, inadequate lighting and ventilation, insufficient bedding, lack of food and clean water, limited medical care, restricted recreation, and reduced contact with the outside world. Taken together, these factors create detention environments that are not only degrading but life-threatening.

Facilities, Forces, and the Infrastructure of Detention

In 2019, a total of 625 custodial corps personnel received training, including 479 men and 146 women, covering subjects including the Bangkok Rules on treatment of women prisoners, incident management, rehabilitation, and human rights. While these efforts suggest some investment in professionalization, serious concerns remain. Poorly trained prison guards often struggle to maintain inmate safety and prison security, while there is limited publicly available information on the total size and operational strength of the Somali Custodial Corps.

Known prison facilities include institutions in Hargeisa in Somaliland; Bosasso, Galkacyo, and Garowe in Puntland; and Mogadishu Central Prison, the Mogadishu Prison and Court Complex, Kismayo, Baidoa, and Beledweyne in South-Central Somalia. Many of these facilities are old, under-resourced, and structurally deteriorated. Detention conditions in Somalia’s urban prisons are widely reported to be harsh, overcrowded, and at times life-threatening. Authorities do not consistently separate pre-trial detainees from convicted prisoners, undermining basic safeguards and exposing unconvicted individuals to punitive conditions before trial.

OPR’s 2019 annual report described prison conditions across the country as severe: poor sanitation, inadequate hygiene, insufficient food and water, and a lack of access to proper medical care. At Mogadishu Central Prison, detainees rely heavily on family members and clan networks for food, water, and medical treatment. Prisoners without family or clan support face an especially vulnerable position with little or no realistic access to treatment. Outbreaks of diseases including tuberculosis and cholera continue to be recorded in overcrowded facilities.

Held Without Trial: A Structural Problem, Not an Exceptional One

Lengthy pre-trial detention remains one of the most pervasive and least visible forms of rights violation within Somalia’s justice system. OPR’s reporting has consistently identified prolonged detention without trial as a structural problem rather than an exceptional occurrence. OPR’s casework has identified individuals held for periods of six months to over a year without charge or judicial review, particularly in cases involving alleged affiliation with Al-Shabaab or where national security justifications are invoked. In such cases, NISA has frequently been the detaining authority, and access to counsel has been denied or severely restricted. Families may not be notified of a relative’s detention for weeks, and in some cases have learned of it only through informal community networks or upon attempted prison visits.

These patterns are not unique to security-related cases. OPR’s monitoring of Mogadishu Central Prison and the Mogadishu Prison and Court Complex has found individuals remanded in pre-trial detention who have been awaiting hearing dates for months in ordinary criminal cases. Delays are driven by a combination of factors: an acute shortage of judges and prosecutors relative to the volume of cases, inadequate case management systems, and the absence of any functioning legal aid structure. Without legal representation, detainees have limited capacity to petition for bail, challenge the lawfulness of their detention, or expedite their hearing.

The situation is compounded by who is most likely to be detained. OPR’s research — including findings documented inScapegoats of the System— has established that members of minority and low-status groups are disproportionately represented among those who remain in extended pre-trial detention. For individuals without clan protection, financial resources, or family connections capable of navigating the system, pre-trial detention can become indefinite in practice. The formal right to a hearing exists on paper; for many detainees, it does not exist in fact.

Documented Abuses by SNA, SPF, and NISA

OPR’s 2022 human rights practices report identified a wide range of serious abuses attributed to state security forces, including unlawful killings, extrajudicial executions, torture, cruel and inhuman treatment, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, politically motivated disappearances, and sweeping restrictions on freedom of expression. UN Secretary-General reports attributed significant civilian casualties to Somali security forces across multiple reporting periods between 2019 and 2021: 76 civilian casualties between November 2020 and February 2021; 32 between August and November 2020; 39 between May and August 2020; and 64 between February and May 2020.

Somali National Army

Between November 2019 and February 2021, the Somali National Army was linked to multiple serious violations including confirmed cases of conflict-related sexual violence and deprivation of liberty of children. The 2020 UN report on children and armed conflict attributed 391 cases of child recruitment, 492 cases of deprivation of liberty, 297 cases of killing and maiming, and 133 cases of rape and sexual violence to the SNA during the period from August 2016 to September 2019.

Somali Police Force

From November 2019 to February 2021, the SPF was responsible for the arbitrary arrest and detention of at least 61 individuals including 7 Al-Shabaab suspects, 14 journalists, and 25 alleged clan militia members. More than 60 boys were reportedly deprived of liberty by the SPF across the same period, alongside 7 confirmed incidents of conflict-related sexual violence between November 2020 and February 2021.

NISA

According to the U.S. Department of State, NISA agents frequently conducted large-scale security operations in which detainees were held for extended periods without due process and subjected to mistreatment during interrogations. From 2017 to 2019, UNSOM/OHCHR attributed 14 cases of arbitrary arrest and detention to NISA, including 4 journalists. The 2020 UN report attributed 18 additional cases of deprivation of liberty of children to NISA. These figures reinforce long-standing concerns that NISA has operated with broad powers and insufficient accountability.

Children in the System: A Documented Emergency

The country task force on monitoring and reporting documented large numbers of grave violations against children across multiple reporting periods. Between November 2020 and February 2021, 121 grave violations were confirmed, with 153 attributed to federal and state armed forces. Between August and November 2020, 945 grave violations were documented, 8.9 percent attributed to federal and state forces. Between May and August 2020, 546 violations were recorded, with 83 attributed to those forces. Between February and May 2020, 826 violations were documented, including 104 attributed to federal and state forces.

These numbers do not describe an exceptional period of conflict. They describe a sustained pattern across multiple years in which children — recruited, detained, killed, or sexually violated by state forces — are not protected by the institutions whose legal mandate includes protecting them.

Somalia’s justice system remains too fragile to guarantee basic rights, too opaque to ensure accountability, and too compromised to protect many of those who fall into its hands. Without meaningful reform, detention in Somalia will remain not merely a legal process, but a passage through risk, neglect, and profound injustice.