It is now emerging that the government is holding several British Broadcasting Corporation staff arrested after the closure of the media company from operating within Somaliland.
Reports indicate that five employees of BBC Media Action have been arrested and are beuing held by the police..
Among the five include Mohamed Gas, Head of the Somaliland Bureau and Abdilahi Jama, a journalist from the BBC Media Action.
Somaliland government last week announced it had banned the BBC from operating within its borders.
Somaliland Information Minister Saleban Yusuf Ali Koore told reporters last Tuesday that BBC broadcasts have reduced the identity and dignity of the self-declared independent nation.
The minister, speaking in the Somaliland capital of Hargeisa, said that after long discussions, authorities decided to ban the BBC on the grounds that the network has lost its neutrality and is acting against the independence of Somaliland.
Koore said the BBC fails to recognize that Somaliland is a democratic country that has stood on its feet for the last 31 years, with multiple presidential and parliamentary elections.
