Update: Naema Ahmed Ibrahim was released on May 7, 2018 following a presidential pardon by Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi.

Somali poet Naema Ahmed Ibrahim Qorane (Nacima Abwaan Qorane) was arrested on January 27, 2018 as she attempted to travel from Hargeisa, Somaliland to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. A vocal activist for “greater Somalia,” Ahmed Ibrahim has long been outspoken for the unity of Somalia and Somaliland, her home region to the north. In recent years, she has been based in Mogadishu as she campaigns for a united country.

According to the poet’s father, authorities arrested Ahmed Ibrahim at Egal International Airport in Hargeisa citing several recent pro-unity Facebook posts she had written. Initially held at a facility run by the National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Ibrahim was transferred to the Central Police Station on January 28, where she was held incommunicado without the ability to see her family.

Ahmed Ibrahim appeared in the Hargeisa Regional Court on January 29 and February 1 before being remanded in custody. She was charged on March 4, 2018 on two counts: “anti-national activity of a citizen abroad” and “bringing the nation or state into contempt”. The first charge sheet specifically mentions Ahmed Ibrahim’s Facebook posts, while the second cites “insult and defamation” circulated by the poet in the national media.

On April 15, 2018, Ahmed Ibrahim was found guilty of the second charge, “bringing the nation or state into contempt,” and sentenced to three years in prison.

Somaliland has sought independence from Somalia since its status as British protectorate ended in 1960, and the animosity between the two regions eventually led to the Somali Civil War that started in 1986 and remains ongoing. The region has been known to repress dissent against its independence in recent years, having utilized “Security Committees” to circumvent courts and ignore due process rights for the accused, and also having arrested humanitarian reporter Abdimalik Muse Oldon after a meeting with the Somali president last February.