The first piece documented who disappeared into Somalia’s detention system. The second — “The Journalists Who Disappeared” — documented who was silenced for reporting it. This piece documents the officials whose orders produced those outcomes — and the institution that now protects them.

They are not in hiding. They are not in exile. They are not facing investigation. They are sitting in the House of the People of Somalia, protected by parliamentary immunity. In a country where the courts answer to political authority, and where the relationships that produced the violations also shape the institutions meant to investigate them, that immunity functions as a near-total shield. Somalia’s new constitution, signed into law by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on March 8, 2026, preserves that immunity. The officials who needed it most helped elect the president who signed it. The violations documented in both previous pieces were not committed independently. They were committed on a president’s orders, in service of his political goals, by officials who expected his protection. When he lost power, both the president and the officials who served him needed the same thing: to stay out of court. The parliamentary seat provides that for both. The crime happens. The journalist who reports it disappears. The official who ordered it buys a seat. The circle closes.

Those Who Committed Violations and Won Immunity

Yaasiin Cabdullahi Maxamuud — known publicly as Yaasiin Fareey — served successively as head of the Banaadir regional directorate of NISA (Somalia’s national intelligence and security agency), deputy director of the national intelligence service, and ultimately acting director of NISA itself. His tenure generated a documented record of enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, and abuse, documented by the Organization for Prisoners’ Rights across multiple reporting periods. Those violations were committed in service of the presidency. He ran for parliament. He won. He now sits behind parliamentary immunity. The cases connected to his tenure — including the unresolved disappearance of NISA officer Ikran Tahliil, which occurred while he held senior intelligence positions and which OPR has investigated in detail — cannot move forward as long as he holds his seat.

Sadiq Cumar Xasan — known as Sadiq John — served as Commander of the Banadir Regional Police. On the night of December 17, 2017, forces under his command attacked the private residence of Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, the leader of the Wadajir Party and one of Somalia’s most prominent opposition figures. Both the Federal Government of Somalia and the Wadajir Party confirmed five guards were killed and Warsame was wounded. He described the attack as an assassination attempt. According to Somali media reporting, it was ordered by President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire. Sadiq John won a parliamentary seat from Dhuusamareeb in the Galmudug federal member state. He is a sitting Member of Parliament. The five guards killed on December 17, 2017 have not been accounted for. Their families have no legal path to accountability as long as he holds his seat.

Mahad Cabdiraxmaan Aadan — known as Taliye Shub — commanded Somalia’s prison forces for an extended period under the previous administration. The detention facilities under his command are among those documented in “Somalia: The Disappeared”: facilities where journalists were held without charge, where human rights defenders were beaten, where civilians were subjected to conditions amounting to torture, and where people disappeared into custody without any legal process. He won a parliamentary seat in 2022 and remains, as of this writing, legally a sitting Member of Parliament — while Somali media report he is simultaneously involved in armed resistance operations around Baidoa, the capital of South West State. His parliamentary immunity potentially covers both.

Those Who Switched Sides and Won Protection

The second category consists of military commanders and political leaders who opposed the previous government’s illegal term extension during the 2021 Badbaado Qaran (“National Salvation”) crisis — armed conflict across multiple Mogadishu districts that, according to the United Nations, produced approximately 24 deaths and displaced between 60,000 and 100,000 civilians. Regardless of the justice of their cause — and the cause was politically legitimate — their conduct left them legally exposed under any future government that chose to treat the crisis as a crime rather than a political settlement. The parliamentary seat was their protection.

Colonel Cusmaan Xaadoole, according to Caasimada Online, led the fiercest fighting of the crisis, directing forces in the Kaaraan and Abdiaziz districts of Mogadishu against federal troops. He won a parliamentary seat for the Jowhar constituency in the Hirshabelle federal member state and is now a sitting Member of Parliament. Mohamed Abuukar Cali — known as Jacfar — served as District Commissioner of Howlwadaag, one of Mogadishu’s most densely populated districts, bordering Villa Somalia. According to Somali media reporting, he directed opposition activities in Howlwadaag during the 2021 crisis, with fighting that reached the Sayidka checkpoint at the Villa Somalia entrance. He won a parliamentary seat and is now a sitting Member of Parliament.

Sadiq John — whose December 2017 attack on Warsame’s residence is documented above — defected in April 2021 and directed Badbaado Qaran forces from the Shiirkole area of Hodan district against the same government he had served. He committed violations under the previous government, switched sides and fought against it, then won a parliamentary seat that protects him from accountability for acts committed on both sides of that transition. When he was surrounded at Shiirkole, Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame — the man whose guards his forces had killed in 2017 — entered Shiirkole to stand with him as a political guarantor. The attacker and his former target had become allies in the same armed standoff. Both are now sitting Members of Parliament in the same legislature.

The political leaders of the crisis were physically present across the same Mogadishu districts. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud — now Somalia’s president — established the Marinayo area of Abdiaziz district as his command post, documented by multiple independent sources including Caasimada Online and FTL Somalia. Senator Muuse Suudi Yalaxow was documented at the same location by Caasimada Online. According to Somali media reporting, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was present in Yaaqshiid district and former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire played a political leadership role in Howlwadaag. None has faced accountability for the civilian toll the crisis produced. The immunity is the same. The institution is the same. The outcome is the same.

The Circle Is Closed

The institution that is supposed to hold Somalia’s security services accountable is partly staffed by the people who ran those services when these abuses occurred. The electoral system that produced this parliament — whether the old clan-delegate model or the one-person-one-vote system now being rolled out across Somalia’s federal states — has not changed the outcome. The regional elections already held in South West State and Galmudug demonstrate that the buying has simply moved to an earlier stage: candidates are determined by political loyalty to the federal government, and the result is shaped before citizens vote. The form has changed. The substance has not.

Somalia’s international partners — the United Nations, the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Arab League, the United States, and the European Union — treat this parliament as the product of a legitimate democratic process. They fund the elections that produce it and issue statements welcoming the results. The parliament they are welcoming includes every official documented in this investigation. Until that accountability cost is acknowledged — until the funding of elections and the protection of those who abuse power are recognised as connected — the sanctuary will remain open, and the circle will keep closing.