Disappearance of Ikran Tahlil Farah

Ikran Tahlil Farah was a Somali civil servant with a background in international human rights law and international relations, employed by the Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA). Born in Kenya on 24 August 1996, she attended primary school in Mandera and secondary school in Nairobi before earning a BA in International Relations from the United States International University in Nairobi. She joined NISA in 2017, working initially in the director's office, and was promoted that October to director of the Human Rights Compliance Division, where her duties included liaising with the British Embassy in Mogadishu and AMISOM on security sector capacity building. From October 2018 to July 2019 she served as Chief of Staff to the Mayor of Mogadishu, Abdirahman Yarisow, who was assassinated in August 2019. She subsequently studied in the UK, obtaining a Certificate of International Human Rights Law from the University of Nottingham in 2019 and a post-graduate certificate in International Affairs from King's College London in 2020, before returning to NISA to head its cybersecurity unit.

On 26 June 2021, at age 25, Ikran was abducted close to her home in the Abdulaziz district of Mogadishu, near NISA headquarters. The last known sighting is CCTV footage showing her entering a vehicle resembling a NISA Toyota jeep. Garowe Online reported obtaining footage showing her being forced into a jeep bearing a fake NISA registration plate. NISA stated that CCTV footage from the scene was unavailable because the camera was not functioning.

On 2 September 2021, NISA issued a statement claiming Ikran had been handed to Al Shabaab, who NISA said then killed her; Al Shabaab denied any involvement. On 4 September 2021, Prime Minister Mohammed Hussein Roble asked NISA Director General Fahad Yasin to submit a report on her death. Roble suspended Yasin over his failure to submit the report, but President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed overturned the suspension, calling it unconstitutional. Roble accused the president of obstructing an effective investigation. On 7 September 2021, IGAD, the EU, the United States, AMISOM, and the UN issued a joint statement calling for a credible investigation into her disappearance.

Former NISA director-general Abdullahi Ali Sanbalolshe, who had originally hired Ikran in 2017, suggested she may have been targeted for possessing sensitive information, including knowledge of a secret deployment of Somali army recruits to Eritrea, some of whom may have been sent on to fight in the Tigray War in Ethiopia. The Council of Presidential Candidates in Somalia called for an independent inquiry. Ikran's mother, Qali Mohamud Guhaad, filed charges at the military court against Fahad Yasin, Abdullahi Kulane, Abdikani Wadna-Qabad, and Yasin Faray in connection with the disappearance. Qali said an out-of-court settlement had been offered through Hussein Dhubow and MP Dahir Jesow; Ikran's father, Dr Tahlil, who lives in London, said the family would not accept such a settlement. President Mohamed later appointed a commission of inquiry, which Qali dismissed. It is believed Ikran may have had information relating to the suicide attack that killed her former boss, Abdirahman Osman, and to the program that sent an estimated 4,000–7,000 Somali military recruits to Eritrea, some allegedly later deployed to the Tigray War.