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A radio journalist has been killed in a suicide bomb attack in Somalia. Abdiaziz Ahmed Aden, a reporter and newscaster for Radio Markabley was caught in the attack on 4 October, in which 100 people were killed, and over 100 injured. Aden was dispatched to the capital Mogadishu from the radio station’s base in the Bardhere district, in southwest Somalia, on 30 September to cover ongoing operations against Al-Shabaab militants. In the attack which killed the journalist, a suicide bomber drove a bomb-loaded truck into government ministry security barrier. Aden was initially reported as missing, but was later identified by his family.
Unknown gunmen shot 20-year-old radio journalist Horriyo Abdulkadir Sheik Ali four times on Wednesday evening as she left her office at Radio Galkayo, the state broadcaster in the Garsoor neighborhood of Galkayo, Somalia. Abdulkadir is news editor, producer, and presenter for Radio Galkayo and a correspondent for Mogadishu-based Radio Risaale. A colleague said Abdulkadir had complained of repeated threats by unknown callers over her coverage of the conflict between government troops and militias.
On August 4, Somali journalist Farah Hassan Sahal died after being shot by a soldier in Mogadishu. The Radio Simba presenter was caught in clashes between Al-Shabaab and government troops supported by the African Union. According to the radio station director, Abdullah Ali Farah, Sahal was shot three times by a sniper while moving damaged equipment to a safer place.
Authorities in Puntland, Somalia’s northeastern semi-autonomous region, released reporter Faysal Mohamed Hassan on Sunday. Mohamed, who wrote for the private news site Hiiraan Online, was serving a prison sentence over a story claiming that two murdered men belonged to Puntland’s security personnel. The journalist had begun serving his one-year sentence in the port city of Bossasso following his 2nd July conviction on charges of endangering state security and publishing a “false news report.”