Woman jailed in Somalia for peaceful protest ‘stripped, kicked and beaten’

A woman being held in prison in Somalia for taking part in peaceful protests has described how she was tortured by her guards. Sadia Moalim Ali, 27, told the Guardian she was stripped naked by two male guards in a room monitored by CCTV, kicked, beaten with a baton and left for two days in a small cell without food. In an exclusive interview from prison, she said: “I was tortured. I was forced to lie face down on the ground, and water was poured on me. I was kicked by guards with boots on. They stood over me and beat me with a baton. “I was taken into solitary confinement and kept there for two days. I was deprived of food and basic necessities while I was locked in that cell. I wasn’t allowed to leave to go to the toilet.” Torture – defined as any act by which severe pain or suffering, physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted – is prohibited under international law and by the UN Convention against Torture in all circumstances. Ali, who is a nursing graduate, says she was tortured as punishment for speaking out about her arrest to the media. Photograph: Handout Ali, a nursing graduate who works as a rickshaw driver, was arrested and detained in a police station on 12 April for her anti-government activism. She used Facebook and TikTok to criticise the federal government, speaking out against alleged corruption and nepotism, forced evictions, youth unemployment, taxation and high fuel prices. …