Toll of journalists killed in suicide bombing increases to three

Reporters Without Borders is saddened to learn that the toll of journalists killed in yesterday’s suicide bombing in Mogadishu’s Shamo Hotel has risen to three. According to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), a Reporters Without Borders partner organisation, freelance fixer and cameraman Abdigafar Abdulkadir Hassan, aka Yaasir Mario died yesterday evening in the Medina Hospital, to which he had been taken in a critical condition with injuries sustained in the bombing. A Radio Shabelle reporter and an Al-Arabiya TV cameraman were the two other media fatalities. The journalists injured in the bombing include: - Mohamed Aweys Mudey, a reporter for Somaliweyn Radio - Abdulkadir Omar Abdulle, a reporter for Universal TV - Mohamed Abdi Hussein, a reporter for Hurmo Radio - Khalid Maki Banadir, a cameraman with Universal TV - Omar Faruk, a photographer for the Reuters news agency The Islamist insurgents of the Al-Shabaab militia and the Hezb-al-Islam group today denied being responsible for the bombing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 03.12.2009 - At least two journalists killed and seven others wounded in Mogadishu suicide bombing Reporters Without Borders is stunned and saddened by today’s suicide bombing in a Mogadishu hotel that killed more than a dozen people including at least two journalists, three government ministers and nine students. The explosion occurred during a ceremony at which Banadir University students were being awarded graduation diplomas. At least seven other journalists were wounded. The figures for dead and wounded are only provisional. “We condemn this attack with the utmost firmness and we express our solidarity with the two news media whose journalists were among the fatalities,” Reporters Without Borders said. “One of these news media, Radio Shabelle, has already seen two of its directors killed in the past two years, while other Radio Shabelle journalists have been killed this year.” The press freedom organisation added: “With violence at a peak in Somalia, journalists who try to cover the country’s chaotic political situation are living a nightmare. Those who masterminded this cowardly bombing are responsible for the deaths of these two journalists. The use of blind violence must stop and should be condemned by all parties to the conflict.” Radio Shabelle reporter Mohamed Amin Adan Abdulle, 24, and Al-Arabia TV cameraman Hassan Zubeyr Haji Hassan were the two journalists killed in today’s bombing, which occurred at the Shamo Hotel in a district known as “Kilometre 5” on one of Mogadishu’s main avenues. Three ministers in the transitional government were also killed while a fourth, the sports minister, who is a former journalist and founding member of the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), was badly injured and was reported to be in a critical condition. According to the information obtained by Reporters Without Borders, at least seven journalists were injured by the blast, including Agence France-Presse photographer Mohamed Dahir. No group has so far claimed the bombed but the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab was widely suspected. A hotel employee said one of the students participating in the ceremony detonated an explosive vest that he was wearing. “We cannot cope with this level of violence anymore,” a former Radio Shabelle journalist based in Mogadishu told Reporters Without Borders. “Most of my colleagues now want to stop working because it has become too dangerous.” Radio Shabelle was one of the nominees in the Media category for the 2009 Reporters Without Borders - Fnac Press Freedom Prize, which was awarded yesterday in Paris. The capital’s most respected privately-owned radio, it is also the one that has been targeted most. Its director, Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe, was fatally shot four times in the head in the centre of Mogadishu while on his way to work on 7 June (http://www.rsf.org/Le-directeur-de-Radio-Shabelle,33288.html). Two of his employees were killed earlier this year while his predecessor, Bashir Nur Gedi, was himself murdered in 2007. Concerned by the growing violence to which journalists are exposed in Somalia, Reporters Without Borders awarded a grant of 2,000 dollars last July to send 20 bullet-proof vests to journalists there (http://www.rsf.org/Grant-to-help-protect-beleaguered.html). With eight journalists killed so far in 2009, Somalia is the world’s second deadliest country for journalists, after the Philippines. It was ranked 164th out of 175 countries in the 2009 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Picture : AFP / Mohamed Dahir