Veteran Somalia radio technician killed in Mogadishu

Three assailants killed veteran radio technician Ahmed Sharif Hussein outside of his home in the Shibis neighborhood of Mogadishu on Saturday, according to news reports and local journalists. Unidentified gunmen, disguised as school students, shot Ahmed four times in the chest and stomach as he was leaving his home to go to work, Radio Mogadishu Director Abdirahim Isse Addow said, according to news reports. Ahmed was pronounced dead at Keysaney Hospital in the capital. No one has taken responsibility for the attack, according to local reports. Ahmed, 40, was a technician for the state-run Radio Mogadishu and had previously worked for several leading stations, such as the now-defunct HornAfrik and Radio Banadir. "Somalia remains one of the most deadly places in the world to practice journalism, with the capital proving especially dangerous," said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes. "Authorities must do their utmost to identify the killers of Ahmed Sharif Hussein and ensure that they are brought to justice." Seven of the eight journalists killed in relation to their work in the past 12 months in Somalia were targeted in Mogadishu. Earlier on Saturday, a man convicted in March of the 2012 murder of Radio Maanta journalist Hassan Yusuf Absuge was executed by firing squad in a Mogadishu square, according to news reports. Adan Sheikh Abdi, 24, had been accused of belonging to the Islamic extremist group Al-Shabaab and was tried as a combatant. Adan appealed his conviction, but a military court rejected it in July and upheld the death penalty, according to news reports. While several local journalists supported the court's decision, some noted concern about whether the accused received due process of law. The military trial was closed to the public and was based on laws dating from the authoritarian regime of former President Siad Barre. Source: CPJ