Veteran radio journalist murdered in Mogadishu

New York, US (PANA) - Unidentified gunmen have assassinated a veteran journalist who had been trying to relaunch a radio station that extremist group Al-Shabaab had shut down and looted in 2010 in Somalia, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said, quoting local journalists.

Abukar Hassan Mohamoud, nicknamed Kadaf, the former director of the private station Somaliweyn Radio, was shot five times in the head and chest around 6 p.m. local time at his home in Wadajir district in the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, the New York-based media rights group said in a statement obtained by PANA here.

The gunmen then fled the area while Hassan, 49, died from his injuries at Medina Hospital soon after the attack.

Wadajir District Governor Ahmed Hassan said authorities were determined to find the culprits. The reason for the attack is unknown.

"We offer our condolences to the family and colleagues of Abukar Hassan Mohamoud and urges authorities to do their utmost to find the killers," CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes said in the statement.

CPJ quotes a former colleague of Hassan as saying he had been trying to relaunch Somaliweyn Radio, which was forcibly closed and looted by Al-Shabaab insurgents in May 2010.

While the station was closed, Hassan, who is survived by his wife and four children, had worked for several civil society organizations and advocated for peace.

CPJ has documented the killings of four journalists in the capital in the past six months, including the former Shabelle Media Network Director Hassan Osman Abdi , who was shot to death in January. The killings have occurred despite the fact that government and African Union troops managed to push Al-Shabaab forces out of the capital last year.

Somalia is the most dangerous country in Africa to work as a journalist, CPJ research shows.
-0- PANA SEG 29Feb2012