A Radio IQK journalist in somalia, Mohamud Mohamed Yusuf, was shot twice in the stomach on Saturday in the capital, Mogadishu, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Yusuf, commonly known as "Ninile," was hit by stray bullets after leaving the station in Afarta Jardin, northern Mogadishu, local journalists told CPJ.
According to local journalists and the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), Yusuf, 22, had just completed presenting the morning news and left Radio IQK at 8 a.m. when two stray bullets hit him. No one was able to reach Yusuf as he lay by the roadside for roughly three hours due to the heavy gunfire in the area, the union reported. The young journalist was eventually taken to Medina Hospital for treatment but died of blood loss, local journalists told CPJ.
Yusuf had worked at Radio IQK for three years as a reporter, presenter, and occasionally as a producer, the union reported. Yusuf is survived by his wife and three children. He is the sixth journalist killed this year and the second from Radio IQK. His colleague, veteran Radio IQK correspondent Nur Muse Hussein, died May 26 as a result of gunshot wounds inflicted while he was covering clashes one month earlier in Beledweyn, Somalia's third largest city.
"We reiterate our plea to the Somali government and African Union peacekeeping troops to do everything in their power to protect journalists during this tumultuous period," said CPJ Africa Programme Coordinator Tom Rhodes. "Somalia had become the most dangerous country in the world for journalists, outstripping Iraq in 2009."
"The chaos reigning in Mogadishu and the barbarity of some armed groups make Somali journalists extremely vulnerable," Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. "With six journalists killed since the start of 2009, Somalia is by far the most dangerous country for the media.
"We call on everyone concerned to respect the Geneva Conventions, which protect civilians, including journalists, in conflict zones."
“These attacks against journalists in Somalia must stop,” said Gabriel Baglo, Director of International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)'s Africa office. “Our colleagues are victims of people determined to muzzle the press and there is a risk that it will soon be impossible for them to inform the national and international opinion about what is happening in Somalia,” he added.
“We convey our condolences to the family and to colleagues of Mohamud Mohamed Yusuf. We denounce the war in Mogadishu and demand immediate end of the hostilities,” declared Abdirisak Omar Ismail, President of the Executive Council of NUSOJ.
Mogadishu has been particularly volatile in recent weeks with an offensive by insurgent groups to topple President Sheikh Shaif Sheikh Ahmed and counterattacks by government forces.
Since 2007, 15 journalists have died in Somalia in connection with their work.
