Journalist Murdered in Somalia: RSF Calls for Measures to End the Massacre

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on local and federal authorities to make every effort to identify and apprehend the perpetrators of the murder of a journalist and to take swift action to combat impunity and strengthen the safety of journalists in the deadliest African country for information professionals.

Everything suggests that this is a targeted assassination. Abdulwali Ali Hassan says “ Online ”, journalist for Kulmiye Radio , a media based in Mogadishu, and Universal TV, a chain based in London, was on his way to his home in Afgoye, about 30 km west of the Somali capital, when gunmen shot and killed him on the evening of Sunday, February 16. The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) said in a statement that the journalist had received several death threats by telephone in connection with his coverage of the armed operations carried out in the region against the Shebabs. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the assassination, but the modus operandi “resembles the operations” carried out by the terrorist group, the union believes .

If this is the first journalist killed in Somalia this year, this assassination brings to 50 the number of journalists killed in the country in the past ten years. In 2019, three of them were murdered .

“We condemn this new assassination of journalist in Somalia with the utmost firmness and ask the authorities for a response that is equal to the massacre that affects information professionals in the country, says Arnaud Froger, head of the Africa office of RSF . As long as impunity is the rule and no major measure is taken to protect exposed and Somalia risks remaining the deadliest country in Africa for journalists. A serious investigation to identify and convict the perpetrators of this assassination is essential, as is the establishment of a mechanism dedicated to the safety and protection of journalists whom we wish. ” 

Investigations into the murders of journalists leading to the identification of those responsible and their conviction are still too rare despite recent efforts to end impunity. The police officer who shot SBS cameraman Abdirisak Qasim Iman in Mogadishu in July 2018 was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison. RSF continues to ask the authorities to make every effort to arrest him so that he can serve his sentence. Two soldiers who had tied up and left two journalists who were interviewing on the street in direct sunlight were also arrested and dismissed from the army.

Somalia ranks 164th out of 180 in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index

Copyright ©2016, Reporters Without Borders. Used with the permission of Reporters Without Borders, CS 90247 75083 Paris Cedex 02 https://rsf.org

As UN Warns Kabul’s Groundwater Could Deplete by 2030,Residents Wait for Hours to Collect Water

Due to acute water shortages, residents of Kabul often have to wait for drinking water for hours at the dwindling wells in the Afghan capital. Within the next five to six years, urbanization and climate change could deplete the city’s groundwater,the  United Nations cautions.

Read More

Despite Risks,Unaccompanied Child Migrants Keep Crossing US Border 

One of the top entry points for migrants under the age of eighteen who enter the United States without proper documentation or adult companions is still South Texas.Although fewer crossings took place in the fiscal year 2024 than in previous years, the risks these children face remain concerning.

Read More

Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on Death Row in Indonesia,is Coming Home

Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina who has spent 14 years on death row in Indonesia, will be coming home but will stay behind bars for the immediate future after being transferred to the custody of Philippine authorities, officials said.

Read More

Trapped in Lebanon, African Migrants Face Unemployment and Rockets

Many of the estimated 176,000 migrants living in Lebanon are African women who are working menial jobs.Many of them have been displaced since the start of the conflict and are facing uncertain futures.

Read More

Permanent Representative of France Briefs Press After Security Council Meeting on Middle East

Nicolas de Rivière,Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, briefs reporters after the UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.

Read More

The Impact on a Ukrainian Family During 1,000-Days of Russia’s War

This week marks 1,000 days of fighting in Ukraine.For millions of Ukrainians, including 32-year-old Oleh Reshetnyak and his loved ones in Kyiv, the mounting death toll, air raid sirens, and explosions have been a grim reality.

Read More

UN Security Council Meets to Discuss the Situation in Libya

James Kariuki,Deputy Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the Month of November, chairs the Security Council meeting on the situation in Libya.

Read More

Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Flee Bombs

Over half a million people, many of them were refugees who initially fled the Syrian conflict, have fled Lebanon into Syria in the last two months.According to those returning to Idlib, Syria’s last opposition stronghold, they are fleeing to a location that is marginally safer than Lebanon,without homes, jobs or humanitarian aid waiting for them.

Read More

Subscribe Our You Tube Channel

Fighting Fake News

Fighting Lies

For More