Several teenage girls are among 23 women being held in prison after being arrested by government forces during the August 11 pro democracy demonstrations called by the Somaliland opposition parties.
Waddani presidential candidate Abdirahman Irro was appalled to learn that among the women held without trial at the Gebilay region central prison are several 17 year olds who should be in school.
The opposition leader discovered this when he visited the prison facility on Thursday morning.
“I paid a visit to the Gebilay region’s central prison today, where 23 girls, some as young as 17 years old, had been unlawfully detained far away from their families and relatives following peaceful protests led by the opposition parties UCID and WADDANI in Hargeisa on Aug 11, 2022,” the Waddani leader tweeted.
This comes as pressure continues to mount on the government to release all those being held without trial for their participation in the protests to demand for elections to be held in November.
A pressure group based in the United Kingdom early in the week entered the fray in the fight for democratic space in Somaliland by filing a complaint to the Amnesty International over the continued human rights abuses in the Horn of Africa nation.
Somaliland AID has flagged Somaliland Government’s torturing and imprisoning the leaders and supporters of the opposition.
In a letter dated August 20, 2022 and addressed to The Human Rights Centre, New Inn Yard in London, the Somaliland Aid said it is deeply concerned over the continued arbitrary detention of opposition leaders in Somaliland.
The Somaliland AID said: “It is apparent that the current judicial system in Somaliland is almost non-existent when it comes to opposition party officials.”
“The judicial system has a reputation of hastily sending innocent politicians to detention without due process as the entire legal system of the country was appointed by the president himself and they cannot go against the government’s wishes, thus they often imprison innocent opposition politicians.”
