Radio Journalist Brutally Murdered in Central Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia, April 5, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) strongly deplores the abominable murder of radio journalist in Hiran region in central Somalia.

Editor of Radio Voice of Hiran, Mahad Salad Adan, was shot dead near his home in Beledweyn district, capital of Hiran region in Central Somalia. A man armed with pistol shot dead Adan at around 16:30 local time in Howlwadag village of Sigalow neighborhood in western Beledweyn, according to fellow journalists. Adan was a reporter for Radio Shabelle in Hiran region.

The Hiran Regional Administration of Transitional Federal Government (TFG) said their forces in Beledweyn killed the man who killed Adan after a government soldier ordered him to stop but the alleged killer tried to scape. The administration added that the man whose body is laying in the street is an Al-Shabaab fighter.

Radio Shabelle said the murdered journalist reported today an armed conflict between Al-Shabaab forces and Ahlu Sunah Waljama, another Islamist movement, in Mahas district of Hiran region.

“We condemn the brutal murder of Mahad Salad Adan. The calculated killings of journalists in recent times highlights how journalists are denied, through the bullets, to exercise their fundamental human right to free expression,” said Omar Faruk Osman, NUSOJ Secretary General.

Adan, 22, is widely known Mahad Jarmal. Journalists in Beledweyn said he was receiving death threats from Al-Shabaab in the past weeks since TFG forces with help of Ethiopian troops took over the control of Hiran region. Radio Voice of Hiran is a station owned by businessmen.

Mahad Salad Adan is the fourth journalist murdered in Somalia in four consecutive months since the start of this year. The late journalist who was a member of NUSOJ's central branch left one daughter and her mother.