Detained Somaliland poet and activist Naima Ahmed Qorane has been charged with “Anti-national activity of a citizen and bringing the nation or state in contempt”.
The poet known for her Somali unity sentiments was charged by the Attorney General of the breakaway region on Monday.
If found guilty Ms.Ahmed may be jailed for at least eight years.
Ahmed was arrested on January 27 upon her return to her native Somaliland after visiting Mogadishu.
There has been an ongoing campaign to pressure the Hargeisa administration to have her released.
Ahmed through her poetry has been a vocal advocate of “Somali Unity” and “The Greater Somalia” agenda.
She was featured in the TedX Mogadishu where she presented her Somali Unity poems to the audience.
She had earlier claimed to have received death threats and warnings not to return to her native Somaliland in relation to her “Somalia Unity” cause
“If it happens though I am not expecting the jail was built not for animals but for people. I will be released one day and the prison experience is not going to change my views” Qorane said in an interview in 2016.
It has clamped down on any persons campaigning against what it terms “Somaliland sovereignty”. In February 2017 journalist and blogger AbdiMalik Muse Oldoon was arrested upon returning from meeting Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmaajo.
Last month Mohamed Kayse Mohamud an author who wrote a book in praise of Somalia president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo was arrested.
Somaliland declared its independence in 1991 following the fall of the Siad Barre regime but it has remained unrecognized by the international community.
