The National Union of Somali Journalists has issued an urgent appeal to the African Union to take action regarding the ongoing "media nightmare" in Somalia.
(NUSOJ/IFEX) – The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) is outraged by the killing of two more Somali journalists in Mogadishu.
On 28 September 2012, Ahmed Abdullahi Farah, a reporter and cameraman for the Yemeni news agency SABA, was killed while traveling in a minibus in Mogadishu’s southern Dharkenley district. Armed men shot Farah at a checkpoint after the journalist reportedly tried to pull out his camera to take pictures.
Farah’s killing took place just a day after the murder of online journalist Abdirahman Mohamed Ali, who worked for the ciyaarahamaanta.com sport news website. Ali was abducted from his mother’s home on 26 September. According to his colleagues, his decapitated body was found the next morning, in the northern Mogadishu neighbourhood of Suqa Holaha, Huriwa district.
“This serial killing of journalists had never before happened in our country. This is clearly a premeditated campaign to eliminate Somalia’s journalist community. It is a media nightmare that requires urgent attention,” said NUSOJ Secretary General Omar Faruk Osman.
Ali and Farah, respectively, represent the fourteenth and fifteenth journalists killed in Somalia since January. Six journalists were killed in Mogadishu in September alone, making it the deadliest month in history for Somali journalists.
NUSOJ has issued an urgent appeal to the Somali authorities and the African Union to take immediate action regarding this “media nightmare”.
