On the night of Friday 30 May, armed officers from Wanla-Weyn Police Station raided the privately owned Radio Wanlaweyn FM and arrested its director, Ismail Khalif Ahmed. The arrest followed the station’s publication of a report that exposed alleged forced "payments demanded” by the Wanla-Weyn district administration from the local community under the pretext of funding the construction of Wanla-Weyn Hospital. According to the now-deleted report on Radio Wanlaweyn FM’s Facebook page, local residents resisted paying because they lacked trust in the district authorities.

Speaking to SJS, Ismail confirmed that he was arrested under the orders of Wanla-Weyn District Police Commissioner Isak Abdulle and District Commissioner Abdukadir Mohamed. He was held overnight in a police cell, where he was subjected to threats and interrogation.

Ismail said he was warned that he "would remain in jail unless the report was taken down and a public apology issued”. As a result, Radio Wanlaweyn FM removed the report about the forced payments as well as the news item about Ismail’s own arrest.

When SJS inquired why the report on Ismail’s arrest had also been deleted, Ismail confirmed that police had specifically demanded its removal.

On 31 May, Radio Wanlaweyn FM published an apology on its Facebook page stating: "Regarding the post we shared on Facebook last night, we offer our sincere apologies to anyone who felt offended. Our intention was to correct things and bring progress, not to cause harm to anyone in particular. We are genuinely sorry if some people interpreted it differently.”

Both Police Commissioner Isak Abdulle and District Commissioner Abdukadir Mohamed failed to respond to SJS’s inquiries.

Abdulle is reportedly part of the EU-trained Darwish police unit deployed by the South West State. Wanla-Weyn, one of the eight districts of Lower Shabelle, remains a conflict-prone town located on the road between Afgoye and Baidoa. The area has witnessed recurrent clashes between rival clan militias with increased gunmen setting up illegal roadblocks, and continued activity by the militant group Al-Shabaab.

Separately, on Wednesday 28 May, Turkish-trained Haramcad forces in Mogadishu’s Kaxda district targeted three journalists: Nuh Farah Mahad (reporter, RTN TV), Mohamed Abdukadir (cameraman, RTN TV), and Mohamed Abdi Hassan (reporter, Five Somali TV).

The journalists were covering a protest by local elders who had been excluded from the controversial voter registration process recently launched by the federal government in Mogadishu. According to interviews conducted by SJS, the journalists were attacked shortly after leaving the elders’ press conference.

Armed Haramcad officers detained the journalists for nearly an hour, threatened them, and demanded they hand over their equipment. A group of clan elders intervened, allowing the journalists to escape.

In another incident on 26 May, journalists from multiple outlets were attacked in the same district while reporting on the alleged abduction of local laborers by the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA.

The laborers, mostly porters and construction workers, were initially told they would be offered jobs, only to be locked up and forcibly registered as voters.

Journalists said they were forced to flee when gunmen from the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) attacked them with pistols. On the same day, RTN TV reported heightened tensions as police conducted door-to-door raids in Kaxda, forcing residents to register as voters.

A similar incident occurred in Mogadishu’s Bakara Market, where journalists were threatened and had their equipment confiscated while gathering evidence of forced voter registration in the city’s main market. Journalists said street vendors and shop owners had been abducted by NISA officers and compelled to register as voters against their will.

"The increasing pattern of unlawful arrests, threats, and censorship targeting journalists reporting on electoral processes and corruption is deeply alarming. We strongly condemn these recent attacks including the raid on Radio Wanlaweyn FM and the arrest of Ismail Khalif Ahmed on Friday,” said Abdalle Mumin, the Secretary General of the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS).

"The use of security forces to silence critical reporting and intimidate journalists in Mogadishu and Lower Shabelle not only undermines media freedom but also exposes the government’s lack of tolerance for transparency and accountability,” Mr. Mumin added "We call for an immediate end to such violations and for all officials and security personnel involved to be held accountable.”

- Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) -