Radio journalist shot dead in central Somalia

Somali people carry the coffin of journalist Hassan Osman Abdi, who was killed on Saturday January 28, 2012.

Fri Apr 6, 2012 12:48PM GMT

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Unidentified gunmen have killed yet another journalist in the central Somalia, amid a sharp rise in killings of journalist in the war-torn country, Press TV reports.

Mahad Salad Aden, who was a reporter for Mogadishu-based Radio Shabelle, was shot several times by three men armed with pistols near his house in Beledweyn town located about kilometers (180 miles) north of the Somali capital Mgadishu on Thursday.

“The armed men attacked the reporter near his house in Sigalow, western parts of the town. They shot him several times and left him for dead. They escaped without taking anything from him,” Warsame, who witnessed the shooting told Press TV.

According to Aden’s colleagues, the gunmen escaped the scene but government soldiers, who launched operation after the incident, captured the gunmen in the neighborhood, and shot dead one of them.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killing.

Meanwhile, CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita condemned ‘the senseless murder of journalist’ Aden, calling on Somali authorities “to apprehend Adan's killers and take all the necessary steps to ensure that journalists are able to work freely without fear of reprisal."

At least three other journalists have been killed in Somalia this year, including Hassan Osman Abdi, the managing director of Radio Shabelle, who was shot dead in January in front of his home in Mogadishu.

Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since 1991, is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists.

Reporters Without Borders (Reporteurs Sans Frontieres), reported in December 2011 that 25 journalists had been killed in Somalia since 2007.

A man wearing a military uniform shot and killed a journalist working for the local Horn Cable television station on a Mogadishu street last December. A Malaysian cameraman was also gunned down in the Somali capital two months earlier.

ABA/YH/JR