TV reporter stabbed to death in Mogadishu

Kalsan TV journalist Said Yusuf Ali was stabbed to death Monday evening in Mogadishu as two other journalists were assaulted according to media rights groups.

According to a joint statement by five media organisations in Somalia, the journalist succumbed to the wounds on the spot in what marks a continuing trend of oppression of journalists in the Horn of Africa country.

Kalsan TV director Mowlid Mohamed Urur quoted by the rights groups confirmed the killing of the journalists suggesting he may have been killed over his work.

“He covered a story on the murder of a school teacher in Afgoye on Monday before he left the TV to his home at 2.p.m,” said Urur.

The journalist aged 30 has left behind two sons and an expectant wife. The rights groups said the assailant has since been arrested by police.

“This murder is the latest in a series of attacks against journalists and media professionals in Somalia,” the groups said in a statement.

“The killing comes against a backdrop of rising threats, intimidations and harassment by the Somali government. It is extremely worrying that almost all of the attacks against Somali journalists have gone unpunished.”

Separately, Shabelle TV reporter Safiya Aden Osman and cameraman Abdulkadir Ga’al were reportedly assaulted by police officer attached to Waberi district Monday.

According to the Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) and other media rights groups, the two were assaulted when they were covering protest by a group of internally displaced (IDP) women who complained against mismanagement of food distribution cards in Waberi District.

The female journalist, Safiya is reported to have been hit by a metal object and was rushed to hospital for treatment and later discharged.