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Seasoned journalist killed in Somali capital

06 May 2010 10:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA. Sheikh Nur Mohamed Abkey, a journalist working with the Somali government-run radio station, Radio Mogadishu, was murdered by gunmen last night in Mogadishu, APA reports. Abkey was reportedly walking through Mogadishuâ€™s Bakara market yesterday morning when he was abducted by hooded gunmen. According to an emailed statement from Mogadishu-based BBC stringer Mohammed Olad Hassan, the senior editor at Radio Mogadishu received a phone call from the abductors saying that they had Abkey and were planning to kill him. Around sunset, the editor received a phone call saying that the journalist had been killed, senior editor Abdirahman Yusuf Al-Adala was quoted by Hassan as saying.
It is believed that Abkey, 52, was killed by Islamist insurgents because he works for the government-run Radio Mogadishu, which is strongly critical of insurgent groups Al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam, the National Union of Somali journalists said in an emailed statement.
â€œTo be honest Somali journalists are in hard circumstances in Mogadishu and across the country,â€ said one Mogadishu-based journalist. â€œWe face challenges from the government and the insurgents â€“ but the government does not kill journalists.â€
The journalist, who did not wish to be named for security reasons, told IPI: â€œThe Islamists donâ€™t care and donâ€™t respect what a journalist is and does; they automatically kill journalists. And journalists who work at Radio Mogadishu face higher risks than the others.â€
Abkey is the first journalist to be killed in Somalia this year. Last year, nine journalists were murdered in the war-torn East African country, according to IPIâ€™s Death Watch count.