On 10 August 2016, Alkarama referred the case of Abdi Aden Cheik Ali to the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression (SR FRDX), in order to call for his release after he was sentenced by the Djiboutian authorities to three months in detention following the dissemination of a video denouncing the lack of water in the region of Ali-Sabieh.

On 19 January 2016, the Court of flagrante offenses of Djibouti City condemned Kadar Abdi Ibrahim, publication co-director of the Aurore newspaper, to a two-month suspended prison sentence, while suspending the publication of this monthly newspaper also for two months. As the sentence seems to relate to the authorities' determination to cut off all means of free expression in the country in the run-up to the April 2016 presidential election, Alkarama and the Djibouti League for Human Rights (LDDH) submitted Kadar's case to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression (SR FRDX) to call on the authorities to cancel the decision against him and to authorise again the publication of the Aurore newspaper.

On 15 January 2016, Alkarama seized again the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression (SR FRDX) and on Torture (SRT) regarding the case of Mohamed Ibrahim Waïss, a Djiboutian journalist detained since 11 January. According to information received by Alkarama today, Mohamed was tortured by the police and he would be in a bad condition, as he has not eaten since his arrest.

On 11 January 2016, the police arrested Mohamed Ibrahim Waïss, a 41-year-old independent journalist working for the Voice of Djibouti. Regularly harassed by the authorities due to his position statements, he has since then been detained without being allowed to see his family or lawyer, while the charges against him remain undetermined. Given the risks of ill-treatment and of a possible prison sentence that he faces, on 14 January Alkarama requested the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression (SR FRDX) to call on the Djibouti authorities to release him.