Two masked gunmen killed the director of one of Somalia's largest broadcasters on Sunday, raising to five the number of journalists killed in Somalia this year.
The gunmen shot Radio Shabelle's director Moqtar Mohamed Hirab several times in the chest and head, said Feysal Ahmed, a businessman who saw the shooting occur just outside his shop in the capital, Mogadishu, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Ahmed's shop is in Bakara market, the biggest in Mogadishu. Hirabe is the third Radio Shabelle journalist to suffer a fatal attack since the start of 2009; the fifth journalist killed this year and the second radio director to be killed in Bakara market - a district under the control of the Islamist al-Shabaab militia.
The AP report said: [Link]
Radio Shabelle Editor Abdulrahman Aladala says another journalist who was walking with Hirab in Bakara market is seriously wounded and in a hospital. "This is a big tragedy. The rights of journalists have been attacked and been violated," Aladala told The Associated Press.
Radio Shabelle is an independent station that has been broadcasting since March 2003. The company launched a TV station earlier this year. Hirab is the third journalist of Radio Shabelle to be killed this year.
"CPJ sends its deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Muktaar Mohamed Hirabe and wishes Ahmed Omar Hashi a speedy recovery," said Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Africa Programme Coordinator Tom Rhodes. "This attack shows the terrible price paid by journalists trying to cover the civil war in Somalia which is the most dangerous county in Africa for the media, with five journalists killed so far this year. We call on the leaders of all sides in this conflict to ensure their forces do not harm journalists."
Voicing its condolences to Hirabe’s family and colleagues and hoping for a quick recovery for Hashi, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) challenged President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed over Somalia’s worsening security in the nearly six months since he took office. “Armed militia, whoever they may be, are continuing to terrorise the people and to attack journalists and members of civil society with total impunity,” the organisation said.
“The Somalia president must come to grips with the scale of this catastrophe and do his utmost to ensure the safety of journalists. We also call for an immediate investigation to identify and punish the criminals,” the organisation added.
