New York, May 3, 2012–Two unidentified men shot and killed Somali journalist Farhan Jeemis Abdulle on Wednesday evening as he walked home from work in Galkayo, a town in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, according to news reports.
Local journalists told CPJ that Abdulle, a producer and host at the private Radio Daljir, would often sleep at the station as a safety precaution but had decided to walk home since he had finished work early. The two assailants were waiting for the journalist near his home in Garsoor Village and shot him four times in the back and hand, news reports said.
Abdulle, who began working for Radio Daljir in 2006, was also a correspondent for the Mogadishu-based Simba Radio, according to local journalists.
Abdulle’s colleagues told CPJ the journalist had received unspecified threats from an anonymous caller a few days before the attack. Local journalists said they suspected Al-Shabaab insurgents had killed Abdulle for his coverage of a program that encouraged young people to lay down their arms. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“We condemn the murder of Farhan Jeemis Abdulle and send our condolences to his family and friends,” said CPJ East Africa Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “We call on authorities to do their utmost to find the perpetrators of this latest killing and double their efforts to ensure the security of journalists operating across the region.”
At Abdulle’s funeral today, Warsame Yusuf, the head of the police criminal investigations department in Galkayo, said the police were investigating the case but had made no arrests yet, local journalists told CPJ.
At least four other journalists have been killed in Somalia this year, according to CPJ research.
- For more data and analysis on Somalia, visit CPJ’s Attacks on the Press.