Abdalle Ahmed Mumin has always prioritized fighting for media freedom and human rights in Somalia. This has put his life and family in danger but his perspective was shaken when he could no longer have himself protected against the Somali government as a journalist for the past 20 years. Abdalle was accused of disobeying government directives in October 2022 and later in March 2023, he fled to Nairobi for safety where he is living until now.

Abdalle was born in the south coast of Somalia, and at seven years, he moved to Mogadishu for education with his family of five boys and a girl, but settlement was almost impossible as they moved from place to place and finally found a home in a refugee camp. “We fled to 120km from Mogadishu when civil war started "he says. While studying, he noticed the unfairness, mistreatment and brutality to refugees by both militiamen as they raped women and girls and "Gatekeepers” diverting food aid for the refugees. "That was my first impression of my country as a young boy. “I told myself, that I was going to be journalist and fight injustices against Internally Displaced People (IDPs)” he says. With this resolve, his journey as a journalist had started.

Unbeknownst to him, Abdalle lost his mother at a tender age to high blood pressure during birth. “That showed me how the country lacked proper health care”, he decries. To add salt to injury, his brother got killed in the fight between clans while he survived but with only one arm. “I had to learn to write and to do everything with my left hand," he said. In 2002, Abdalle started living his dream when he was employed as an intern reporter for a local newspaper to report about women, children and IDPs while at the University of Somalia. During his internship, more journalists were killed by militia groups and the profession was not safe. “My family and friends were saying that it is too dangerous for me" he recalls, but he was committed.

Abdalle first witnessed the wrath of the Somali government when he published an article describing the state of prison in 2009. He was detained for six years for interviewing a local militant commandant.  Abdalle was not shaken because he knew there was no media freedom in Somalia. He decided to be an online reporter. In 2011, he started working with The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal, but that brought him more problems at home, as he was considered as a spy and a traitor by the government and militias, because he was working for the western media, but that did not scare him because his main aim was to promote media freedom and human rights in Somalia.

Abdalle tested death, when two gunmen trailed him while from a local bank in January 2015 and, started shooting at him because of a story he had done in December 2013. “I had gunshots on my vehicle, three bullets hit my car and later I received a call saying, they will get me tomorrow." The next morning, I went to Nairobi and that is how my story of exile started,” he says. He had received endless calls from unknown people because of the story he wrote for The Wall Street Journal concerning the death of the Al-Shabab's Emir, Ahmed Abdi Godane who was injured in the US air strike. In 2020, Abdalle wrote a book entitled Haunted African Journalists in Exile and in the chapter of Terror and death in Somalia, he describes the life of a journalist in exile in Nairobi, there is no work and Nairobi itself is not safe for those journalists basing on his experience.

Impunity in Somalia is the order of the day, journalists are killed and others harassed and detained but no one comes out to speak. Seeing all that, Abdalle and his friend Mohammed Ibrahim Isak decided to start the Somali Journalists Syndicate in 2019 to fight for the rights of journalists and end impunity in Somalia. This association has grown from 50 to 500 members. Abdalle serves as the secretary General for the syndicate while Mohammed serves as the president. In 2022, after election, the President declared war on Militia groups and passed a directive forbidding the media from covering any news related to Al-Qaeda, Abdalle saw this as silencing the country's independent media. “Journalists like me are targeted because they know I send chilling messages to all media workers in Somalia,” he says.

The syndicate held a press conference on 10^th October 2022, addressing the government to review the law and intelligence officials tried to forcefully enter to arrest Abdalle but he was not there. The following day, intelligence personnel at Aden Added International Airport abducted Abdalle while traveling to Nairobi. This time they faked a charge on him not related to his work but security related charges, which forced fellow journalists to demonstrate and demand for his release. “I was arrested without a warrant which is out of law,” he says. After six days he was granted bail but later jailed for almost five months. All this affected his mental health and that of his family.

Abdalle appeals to international bodies of African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN) to help Journalists in Somalia by protecting, and supporting them to offer accountability to the country. “Those that kill journalists should be dealt with to end impunity in Somalia”, he advises. He blames impunity on lack of strong laws in Somalia to protect Journalists. Somalia is the most dangerous country for Journalists on the African content where more than 50 journalists have been killed since 2010. Almost everyone in Somalia is armed and according to the Reporters without Borders, Somalia is ranked number 140 out of 180 on the global list of press freedom index 2022.