By Malyun Ali
Late Mohamed Ibraahin Raage was shot dead by unknown assailants in front of his home in Mogadishu late on Sunday.
Mogadishu (RBC) Somali government officials and colleagues of assassinated journalist blamed Al Shabab militants in Somalia for the murdering of the journalist Mohamed Ibrahim Raage, RBC Radio reports.
Late Mohamed Ibrahim Raage [better known as Honest] was shot to death by unknown assailants late on Sunday in front of his home in Dharkeenley neighborhood in Mogadishu after he returned from his daily work shift at Radio Mogadishu, the state-run radio where the journalist was working. He is the fourth journalist murdered this year.
The director of Radio Mogadishu, Abdirahim Isse blamed that Al Shabab fighters were behind the killing and that he was the fifth journalist from state-run media assassinated by the group since 2009.
“Al Shabab are not only targeting journalists but the whole society. They killed Sheikh Abdukadir Nur in Garowe, they also killed Dr. Ahmed Haji in Bossaso, they attempted to assassinate Sheikh Bashir Salad but they have failed.” Isse said during the burial event of the deceased journalist.
The country’s information minister Abdullahi Hersi Elmoge who is now taking a working visit in Switzerland has vowed that the security forces will not fell behind to arrest what he called “the enemy of the Somali people” who have accustomed to murder the messengers.
The deputy information minister Ibrahim Isaaq Yarow also whispered the same blame and promised that the perpetrators will test the pain of the justice.
“It is not new to them [Al Shabab] assassinating media workers but I can say they will soon come to the reality and will test the weight of the law.” he added.
Al Shabab spokesman has not officially taken the responsibility of the assassination but various pro-Al Shabab websites justified the killing and claimed that the journalist deserved killing for working government run radio which Al Shabab calls as “enemy radio”.
Al Shabab, a militant group battling against Somalia government forces has already banned and took away many media outlets in Somalia. The group describes journalists in Somalia as “spies for western interest”.
On late March, a military tribunal in Mogadishu has convicted Al Shabab member who pleaded guilty of the killing the journalist Hassan Yusuf Absuge in September last year. Absuge is one of 18 media workers killed in Somalia in 2012.
RBC Radio
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